Green Tea Bioplastics

緑 茶を 再 利 用 した 易分解性素材

GREEN TEA BIO PLASTICS

Green Tea Bioplastics is the third open access publication of FabTextiles and Materials lab at FabLab Barcelona on the subject of material driven design open source recipes.

It presents the materials tests of Hinako Mitsushima with the guidance of various experts of the FabTextiles lab during her internship period of September 2019 to February 2020.

It comes after the "The secrets of Bioplastics " (2017) open access publication developed by Clara Davis and the "Bioplastic Cook Book " (2018) developed by Margaret Dunne as part of their internships.

The publication has been edited by Ines Macarena Burdiles Araneda for the presentation at Matsudo International Science Art Festival ‒ Garden of Creativity in November 2021.

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03. Detail of the non woven cloth used to press the excess of water of the tea-leave paper.

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Introduction Green Tea Bioplastics uses a material very present in Japanese culture. The goal was to experiment with various techniques and processes in order to develop a biomaterial based on green tea leaves waste.

In Japan, tea leaves have been used for centuries in various ways; to drink, to clean and deodorize. Commonly known in western culture is the Japanese "Tea Ceremony".

The Japanese tea ceremony is called Chanoyu, Sado or simply Ocha. It is a choreographic ritual of preparing and serving green tea, together with traditional sweets to balance with the bitter taste of the tea. Preparing tea in this ceremony means pouring all one's attention into predefined movements.(1) The individual consumption of green tea in Japan is around 700 grs a year, reaching a total consumption of 108 thousand tons approximately every year. (2)(3) We hope that this research will serve as an inspiration for using the organic tea leaves waste, but also other organic waste materials.

はじめに

緑茶バイオプラスチックは︑日本文化に非常に存在する素材

を使用しています︒ 目標は︑緑茶の葉の廃棄物に基づく生体

材料を開発するために︑さまざまな技術とプロセスを実験する

ことでした︒

日本では︑茶葉は何世紀にもわたってさまざまな方法で使用さ

れてきました︒ 飲む︑きれいにする︑脱臭する︒ 西洋文化で

一般的に知られているのは︑日本の﹁茶道﹂です︒

お茶の苦味とバランスをとるために︑伝統的なお菓子と一緒に

日本の茶道は︑ 茶の湯︑ 佐渡︑ または単にお茶と呼ばれています︒

緑茶を準備して提供する振り付けの儀式です︒ この式典でお

茶を準備するということは︑事前に定義された動きにすべての

グラムで︑年間約 700

人の注意を向けることを意味します︒

日本の緑茶の個人消費量は年間約

万 千 10 8 トンに達します︒ この研究が︑有機茶葉廃棄物だけでなく︑他の有機廃棄物を利

02. Rice flour with green tea leaves.

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用するためのインスピレーションとなることを願っています︒

01. Detail of the Fabric mold.

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References • • • • • • • •

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01. Clay-like paste

02. paste + binder

These samples are the pastes made only from tea leaves through mixing and compacting by hand. They are very hard and water soluble, fragile with little cracks.

Experiments with different binders. We tried sodium alginate, tapioca starch, cornstarch, rice flour, xanthan gum and guar gum. We decided to continue with sodium alginate.

05. Fabric Mold

06. Wooden Mold

Original fabric mold. To keep the fabric in place, it is sewn onto a wooden frame. The paste shrank as it dried, making it difficult to remove from the mold. As we pulled the paste from the mold, the mold broke.

These experiments are the cups made from the wooden mold combining several materials. This experiment kept the form better.

(1) http://japanese-tea-ceremony.net/ (2) https://www.o-cha.net/english/teacha/distribution/greentea4.html (3) https://www.statista.com/statistics/663274/japan-green-tea-consumption-per-person/ (4) https://class.textile-academy.org/tutorials/̲PaperMaking̲Angela%20Barbour.pdf (5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washi (6)https://chasingtrees.net/?tag=paper-was-first-made-from-the-paper-mulberry-in-chinaby-100-ad (7)https://japanobjects.com/features/wabi-sabi (8)https://www.kyoto-ryokan-sakura.com/archives/191

Further Reading • https://www.worldteanews.com/issues-trends/deep-dive-repurposing-tea-leaves-tea-waste • https://bioresources.cnr.ncsu.edu/resources/evaluation-of-tea-wastes-in-usage-pulp-andpaper-production/ • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652620333989 • https://bluecatpaper.com/tea-paper/ • https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Paper-containing-60-wt-of-waste-green-tea-leavesafter-odor-adsorption-ie-after-24-h̲fig1̲226948022

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Sequence of experiments

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03. Two-part mold

04. One-part mold

Attempts to make cups with the tea paste binded with sodium alginate.

The paste was pressed between two paper cups and sprayed with a mix of 10% of calcium chloride in water.

Attempts to make a cup out of a cardboard mold. When we used the inner part, the cup came to be too thin. The recommendation is to use the outer part of the paper mold with a good amount of the paste.

07. Tea leaves paper

08.paper + binder

Attempt to make paper from the used tea leaves. Three types of techniques for making paper were used : the Chinese, the Mexican, and the Japanese.

To make the paper stronger, we coated it with sodium alginate. If you add too much glyceline to the paper itself, the paper will become fragile.

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Wabi Sabi Every failure is a lesson

器

ʻ Wa b i ʼ e x p r e s s e s t h e p a r t o f s i m p l i c i t y, impermanence, flaws, and imperfection. On the contrary, ʻSabiʼ displays and expresses the effect that time has on a substance or any object. Together ʻwabi-sabiʼ embraces the idea of aesthetic appreciation of aging, flaws, and the beauty of the effects of time and imperfections.

The two separate parts, when put together, express simplicity and the truest form of an object. It embraces finding comfort in purity and a life detached from materialistic obsessions of the world. (8)

CUP 6

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Materials and Apparatus used tea leaves tapioca starch glycerin water sodium bicarbonate (SD)

75g 6g 1-2g 100ml 11gms

strainer mortar mold synthetic textile

＊ This produces material of 4cm*4cm*4mm

Wabi-sabi is the view or thought of finding beauty in every aspect of imperfection in nature. It is about the aesthetic of things in existence that are “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”. Wabi-sabi is also deeply influenced by the teaching of the Buddha and its school of thought can be interlinked with Buddhist thinking. (8)

STEP 1 Soften Fiber 1. Soak the tea leaves in water overnight.

2. Simmer with SD or cream of tartar to soften.

(The amount of the soda should be 15% of the leaves.)

3. Wait until the tea cools down and rinse it with water.

STEP 2 Make tapioca glue 1. Put together 100ml water, 6g tapioca starch, 1-2g glycerin and mix all the ingredients before heating.

2. Cook over low flame until the mixture becomes solid while mixing.

STEP 3 Creating items out of tea leaves 1. Mash the tea leaves with mortar and strainer as smoothly as possible.

2. Leave it for an hour under sunlight or dryer.

3. Add the binder (tapioca glue).

4. Leave overnight to allow it to solidify.

5. Shape it in a mold covered with synthetic textile.

DO NOT FORGET:

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Make sure to dry the green tea leaves in a dehydrator or in direct sun because they will grow mold if they are kept wet.

Make sure to ventilate and let your biomaterial dry in a dry warm room. You can add some vinegar or cinnamon in your recipe in order to avoid mold.

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紙 Wabi Sabi Every failure is a lesson

PAPER

Born of the Mahayana Buddhist understanding of life as impermanent, wabi-sabi adds to that recognition a distinctly Japanese sensitivity to natural processes and materials, and to the pleasures of simplicity. (7)

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Materials and Apparatus used tea leaves tapioca starch glycerin water sodium bicarbonate(SD)

25g 3g 1-2g 100ml 3,75g

strainer mortar frame with mesh fabric wooden board

＊ This produces material of 10cm*10cm*0.5mm.

STEP 1 Soften Fiber 1. Soak the tea leaves in water overnight.

2. Simmer with SD or cream of tartar to soften.

(The amount of the SD should be 15% of the leaves.)

3. Wait until the tea cools down and rinse it with water.

4. Blend in the mixer and afterwards take out the hard fibers and thick stems.

STEP 2 Tapioca Glue mix 1. Put together 100ml water, 3g tapioca starch, 1-2g glycerin and mix all the ingredients before heating.

2. Cook over low flame until the mixture thickens like cream.

STEP 3 Making paper out of the wet solution 1. Prepare the bath filled with tapioca glue water.

2. Put the solidified tea leaves solution in a meshed strainer, and allow the extra water to drip.

3. Throw away the excess water.

4. Transfer the paste to a wooden board and remove the extra water with a rolling pin.

5. After the sheet becomes dry, peel it out from the board. And there you have it. Paper from tea leaves!

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Paper making processes HISTORY ̲ THE FIRST PAPER CHINA • • • • •

•

The first hand made paper documented in history was in China between 220 and 25 BC. Made of the inner bark of the Paper Mulberry plant.

Pouding and stirring bark in water.

After which the matted fibres are collected on a mat.

The bark of Paper Mulberry was particularly valued and high quality paper was developed in the late Han period using the bark of tan (Sandalwood).

In the Eastern Jin period a fine bamboo screenmould treated with insecticidal dye for permanence was used in papermaking.

MAKING PROCESS • • • •

•

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The paper production process began with the long softening of the fibers Afterwards they were beaten and crushed.

A paste was obtained which was then purified.

The sheet was formed on a sieve made of thin reeds joined together by sil or mane that was placed on a wooden frame.

The sheet was dried and compressed onto the plate of porous material or leaving it in the air. (4)

HISTORY ̲ AMATE. MEXICO •

• • • •

The other paperʼs precursor was the Amate that was prepared and used in Central America, most specifically in México in the pre-hispanic period.

Made from the medulla of the Ficus plant.

The process begins with obtaining the bark for its fiber.

It makes a thick paper used both to write and draw.

Adult trees are considered sacred.

JAPAN • •

•

AMATE̲MAKING PROCESS • • • • • • •

•

Soak the bark for a day or more to soften it , or boil the bark instead, which is faster.

You can introduce ashes or caustic soda.

Rinse the bark in clean water.

At this stage, chlorine bleach may be added to lighten the paper.

Wooden boards are sized to the paper being made. They are rubbed with soap so that the fibers do not stick.

The fibers are arranged on wooden boards and beaten together into a thin flat mass.

This maceration process liberates soluble carbohydrates that are in the cavities of the cell fibers and act as a kind of glue.

Remaining on their boards, the pounded sheets are taken outside to dry. (4)

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• • •

Paper was introduced to Japan in 610 AD by Doncho, a Buddhist monk from Korea.

Washi is the lightweight, strong traditional Japanese paper made by hand from the innerbark fibers of three plants: the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub (Edgeworthia chrysantha), or the paper mulberry (kōzo) bush.(5)(6) The name washi literally means "Japanese paper". Today most paper in Japan is made in large automated mills, but a few hundred families in rural villages continue to make washi in the traditional way.

Traditionally, Japanese farmers make paper in the winter after all of the other crops have been harvested.

The cold temperatures keep the organic materials fresh.

The fibers in the pulp also contract in the cold weather and form a stronger sheet of paper.

Since paper is essentially a combination of vegetable fibers and water, pure cold water is also vital to the art of making washi.

Any minerals or impurities in the water will eventually affect the paper. (4)

KOZO PAPER ̲MAKING PROCESS • • • • • •

Made with bark of the Kozo plant.

Select the branches, cut them and steamed in a boiler for a few hours to help to peel the bark off the branch.

Separate the green and brown parts from the clear inner one, and separate these fibers.

Rinse the inner part in the rain of clear water.

Break the mixture in fibers.

After we can bleach or not these fibers.

Creating the Pulp • Collect the pulp to form the sheets of paper with a screen framed in a wood frame and stretched.

• With Kozo it is possible to make very thin sheets of paper, but also very resistant ones.

• The sheet can be compressed onto the plate of a porous material (cloth) and let dry in the air. (4)

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