Flaux - Flower Matter
Basic information
Project Title
Category
Project Description
About 40% of commercially grown flowers are thrown away before reaching consumers. Flower Matter is a research project aiming to divert flower waste from landfills, by directing packaging into proper recycling processes, offering alternatives to unsustainable materials and increasing circularity. Developed within this project, Flaux is an innovative textile material, a “bio-leather” made from flower petals, that could generate a positive environmental impact in the fashion industry, by replacing harmful conventional leather.
Geographical Scope
Project Region
Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
Which funds
Year
Description of the project
Summary
Flaux is an innovative textile material produced from flower waste resulting from a research project called ‘Flower Matter’ which is an ongoing research of ways to sustainably valorise flower waste. The project aims to provide a solution to cut this waste stream by turning flower waste into environmentally responsible materials. By integrating material production into the industry, we aim to divert flower waste from landfills, direct recyclable wastes that come with flowers into their proper recycling processes, offer alternatives for unsustainable materials and enable circularity in the industry.
Flaux contains flower petals as the main ingredient and its colour agent. Hence, no artificial colourant, no oil-based ingredient or additive is needed. The flower material is all-natural, compostable, recyclable and microplastic-free.
Flaux can be categorised as a ‘bio-leather’ or 'leather-like material’ which has the potential for textile usage. Implementing Flaux to the fashion industry could generate a positive environmental impact as we are introducing an ecological alternative to the harmful conventional leather, which is accountable for climate change. Decreasing the amount of conventional leather use also means reducing leather production, which is toxic and poisonous to workers and the communities.
The research of Flaux resulted in two higher academic researches under two EU institutions (Germany and Finland) from design and management perspectives as cited below.
- Purasachit, I. (2021) The designerly approach in material development: a design-led exploration of surplus flowers as raw material [Master’s thesis, Aalto University]. AaltoDoc. http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-2021112810452
- Danapan, C. (2022) Sustainable Entrepreneurship - Circular business plan and communication strategies for a sustainable material startup 'Flower Matter’ [Unpublished Master’s thesis]. Akademie Mode & Design.
Key objectives for sustainability
Various sources say 40% is the percentage of commercially grown flowers that are thrown away before they reach consumers' hands. In Finland, floral waste at wholesalers and significant retailers are 2-10% of inventory; and among smaller flower shops, the number hovers between 5 and 20%, depending on the season. In countries with higher flower traffic, such as Holland as a prominent flower exporter, the loss is even higher. Outside of the EU, a country such as Thailand generates approximately over 10 tons of waste flowers daily per one flower market.
These discarded flowers have no usage. They are thrown away with their packaging intact. Therefore, flower wastes are not considered organic and can only end up in landfills as mixed wastes or being incinerated.
Flaux, a part of the Flower Matter project, aims to divert flower waste and its non-compostable components, e.g. plastic packaging, rubber, plastic tubes, out from landfills. Our flower upcycling hub will sort out recyclable waste to their proper recycling processes whilst processing every part of flower waste into usable innovative raw materials.
Circular economy at the core - Transforming flower waste into leather-like material adds more value to biomass instead of ending up in landfills. In addition, Flaux has the potential of next-gen material and replaces conventional hazardous animal and plastic leather.
Cradle to cradle approach - Flaux is designed to be biodegradable. Therefore, after its lifespan, it is possible to reutilise or up-cycling flaux into new material such as flower paper. This approach ensures that Flaux can be truly recycled and eventually return to earth in an organic and non-toxic way.
Strive for loss of biodiversity issue - Flower waste as a feedstock means less agriculture and farming—no cattle grazing in Flower Matter's supply chain. Therefore, negative impacts such as deforestation, land degradation, and habitat loss will continuously decrease if Flaux is widely adopted
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Generally, colour plays a vital role in creating appealing aesthetics for products and materials. However, at the moment, we are in an era where the need for more sustainable materials are rising significantly. In addition, we constantly search for natural, environmentally friendly materials to substitute the synthetic or heavily chemically processed ones. Through Flaux, we want to advocate for slow fashion whilst enhancing organic natural colour's aesthetic.
During the development of Flaux, we paid close attention to preserving the original colour of the flowers and reflecting it in the material, which results in one unique quality of Flaux. Unlike most waste-based materials that are brown or need an artificial colourant, Flaux obtains its colour directly from its raw material, i.e. flower waste, more specifically, flower petals. The colours are preserved naturally during the preparation of fresh flowers, meaning that there is no requirement for an extra step of dye extraction or any synthetic colourants involved.
Nevertheless, as the colours of Flaux come purely from such a natural source without being chemically modified, they will inevitably change over time. This is where the second topic we want to address lies.
We, consumers in modern society, tend to attach to the highly engineered properties that are made to serve human satisfactions, i.e. the precise colour customisation or the ever-lasting colour from synthetic pigments. Unfortunately, this habit leads to many products being thrown away because they are discoloured or not aesthetically satisfying.
With Flaux, we want to represent the appreciation of natural colour by encouraging the users to experience natural ageing. Therefore, instead of modifying Flaux's colour, we pay close attention to its natural changes and learn to design with them. By doing so, the colour of Flaux that changes throughout time gives a different emotional aesthetic and celebrates timeless sensations of the natural flower colour
Key objectives for inclusion
Flaux as a material alone focuses more on the ecological impact. However, Flaux, together with its production, flower's cycling hub, generate a holistic practice that considers both sustainability and societal aspects. Our key objectives in terms of inclusion are listed below.
Create community engagement - we aim to build a strong community of local cut flower stakeholders where all parties engage in our upcycling system through our sustainability-oriented business model. While most waste generators usually are only seen as raw material providers of waste-based material businesses. Our purpose is to create a sustainable community where every stakeholder is involved and treated fairly and equally by Flower Matter's ethical incentives and support.
Affordability and accessibility - Flaux and all of our flower upcycling processes have been intentionally designed to be easily implemented in any location with a significant flower waste issue worldwide. Moreover, while our approach is scalable, it is still considered 'low-technology'. Having an operation that does not require high investment in advanced machinery with complex technology allows our process to accommodate all scales of waste around the world while keeping the price of Flaux at an affordable rate.
Advocate for equality - This project allows two female students soon to be entrepreneurs, to follow their dream of creating equality. Specifically, gender equality in the entrepreneurial start-ups' segment where ethnic business women are primarily underrepresented. This needs to change systematically. Moreover, coming from a manufacturing country like Thailand, we are highly aware of forced labour and child labour exploitation. Therefore, as entrepreneurs, we aim to create an equal, healthy working environment with our business structure where equality, together with transparency and traceability of our process, is our priority.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
As stated above, Flaux and the concept of Flower Matter offer a novel bio-based material from flower waste to be an alternative option in the textile landscape. The implementation of Flaux and its production will add value to flower waste that is supposed to end up in landfills and enable circularity in the flower and fashion industry. Furthermore, it contributes to the community where it is located by supporting local businesses in buying their surplus flowers, creating career opportunities and feeding locally-produced eco-friendly material back into the market.
Flaux, as a material, is designed to be environmentally sustainable with its manufacturing process and functionality. Besides being a positive impact material, Flaux's aesthetic qualities (i.e. its unique colour and the grateful ageing behaviour that derived from the nature of flowers) challenge the consumer's perception of the long-lasting colour that is consequently full of chemicals and significantly toxic to human health and wellbeing.
As we believe that our project can generate an excellent impact once implemented, we must conceptualise a sustainable business at the core, meaning that we aim for a business that prioritises environmental impact and enhances the quality of life. This is why we emphasise flower upcycling hub throughout this application. Flower Matter is the key to Flaux's circularity. It also serves as a platform to unite all stakeholders within the flower sector, makes Flaux affordable and accessible worldwide and becomes a channel to advocate for quality in the workplace.
To summarise, via Flaux and Flower Matter, we anticipate waste reduction, conscious consumption elevation, carbon offsetting and other details as mentioned above which align with SDGs goals no. 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, 13: Climate Action, 15: Life on land, 9: Industry, Innovative and Infrastructure, 8 Decent work and Economy Growth and 5 Gender Equality.
