Tomorrow Machine
The world of food packaging is changing and the aptly-named Tomorrow Machine is one company that is not afraid to be at the pointy end of the action.
Founded in 2012 and based jointly in Sweden and Paris, Tomorrow Machine has enjoyed international publicity thanks to its innovative wrappers and egg-like breakable shells for products such as oil, which make use bioplastics in a series called This Too Shall Pass.
Product Designer Anna Glansén - who co-founded Tomorrow Machine with Hanna Billqvist - told EPPM that the company's mission is to develop specialised packaging concepts.
"Our vision as designers is to build a better world through research, new technologies and intelligent material. We believe in looking at science from a creative point of view to shape the innovations of tomorrow," Glansén explained.
This Too Shall Pass, she added, is a series of packaging innovations where the wrapper or carton has a short lifespan like the food it contains, with the package and the food therein "working in symbiosis".
"We started this project by asking ourselves the question, 'Is it reasonable that it takes several years for a milk carton to decompose naturally, when the milk goes sour after a week?'"
Tomorrow Machine's packaging solution for oil-based products is a bioplastics formed of sugars with a wax coating, the idea being that individual portions of oil or other sauces and lubricants can be dispensed by cracking the package like an egg, leaving behind waste material that will degrade in its final environment.
Another prototype is the rice package that is made from a paper-like material and coated in wax, that can be peeled like an orange, dispensing a single portion of the product inside.
Finally, Tomorrow Machine's smoothie packaging makes use of a bioplastic comprising of agar-agar seaweed which degrades at the same rate as its contents and is ideal for drinks that have a short lifespan and have to stay refrigerated such as milkshakes.
Of course, the advances being made by these busy product designers are a small piston in the wider sustainability engine as far as the environmental impact of spent food packaging is concerned and Glansén believes that the development of biodegradable materials and a better recycling system are necessary to progress both the work the Tomorrow Machine does, and how we dispose of packaging in general.
Glansén said: "We do not believe that there is only one way to solve this issue, we need to look at each product and each problem individually and find the right solution."