Bónus Tiles

Tiles made from recycled PLA grocery bags made PLA and PBAT

Reykjavík, 2021

The Idea

The Bónus Tiles are meant to raise awareness about the “new and improved” grocery and/or trash bags made from plant derived plastic, a blend of PLA and PBAT. PLA (polylactic acid) is economically produced from renewable resources such as corn sugarcane starch. PBAT is a biodegradable alternative to low-density polyethylene and shares with it similar qualities like flexibility and resilience.

It is a more decomposable and less polluted than oil derived plastic and it is strong enough to be a potential building material. After researching the material, I figured that upcycling it as tiles was ideal. Tiles in general are equally functional as they are aesthetical which are the properties I manly focused on during the design period. The tiles are produced from the bags with few simple steps and no added material. The bags only need to be heated* and pressed into the desired tile shape.

This easy, cheap and fast method of upcycling the bags into building material can prevent them from ending up in landfill and taking up to 100 years to completely decompose. The tiles can then be used for either decorative or practical use, and are later on, given that they are composted in an industrial compost, completely decomposable.

I put the “new and improved” in quotation marks above since the bags are single use only. Simultaneously the tiles suggest how the bags can be used further. Even though the material derives from plants and is confirmed to be only 500 gr CO2/kg (plastic is 6kg CO2/kg) it is not as biodegradable as advertised. It is compostable in an industrial compost, which as a matter of fact does not exist in Iceland and is not where general waste is usually composted in other countries either. Therefore, it takes up to 100 years for these bags to completely decompose in landfill.

But, if not perceived as single use material, the PLA-PBAT is a strong, flexible and durable material that is compostable if composted in the correct manner. As a result, upcycled from the single use bag, a multi-purpose bag tile is produced.

*I‘ve tried different methods, e.g. oven, heatgun, sandwich grill and everything worked out well.