One of our core missions within the organization is to support large companies in taking a more responsible and environmentally friendly path. Some choices will be more focused on local production, others on showcasing our local designers, or encouraging the use of eco-friendly materials. The promotional products industry remains a very harmful environment from an environmental perspective. Internal decisions will often be the turning point, with the goal of leading a company toward greener and more humane values.
Beyond Object Creation
Kotmo strives to continually push its thinking further, offering innovative solutions and thinking better to slow the decline of our ecosystems. We have developed several objects using recycled materials, such as our tablet sleeve and the recycled felt passport holder. However, it remains very difficult to develop a material based on the principles of the circular economy that is affordable, accessible, and made in Quebec. In response to this obstacle, we have been researching for a year now, with the aim of creating our own raw material from organic waste.
Validate your steps
The first step was to determine which resource is sufficiently accessible in Quebec and produces enough organic waste to justify industrial processing. This is how we arrived at orange peel, a highly malleable and easy-to-use component for creating solid objects.
In recent years, health and nutrition have become much more important to a large proportion of Quebec's population. A market is developing for businesses offering vegetarian dishes, freshly squeezed juices, smoothies, and other products containing fruits and vegetables. Lifestyles are changing, and concern for climate change is becoming more legitimate. Composting is a relatively well-applied and well-accepted practice in several Quebec cities, but there is still much room for improvement for businesses. It would be more cost-effective, in terms of time and money, to send organic waste to the dump, rather than sorting it and paying a truck to pick it up at its location. We saw this opportunity and began our search to find a business willing to let us have their organic waste so we can recycle it and transform it into useful and sustainable items.
The first steps
The beginnings of this project were initiated in the summer of 2018 when several tests and trials were carried out using orange peels recovered from a freshly squeezed juice store in Montreal. We first attempted to mix various components of the orange with polymers to then observe the durability and resistance of these alloys.
Following several analyses, we continued our research in a more concrete manner in January 2019. An external chemist and industrial designer joined our team to help us develop the plan of attack for extracting orange flour. Here are some of the results obtained during our tests:
Through these experiments, we were able to conclude that it was possible to develop an eco-responsible material that could be used to create objects. Indeed, this research allowed us to develop a manufacturing process with multiple concentrations of flour with a biodegradable polymer. We now need to determine the environmental and economic criteria that must be met to allow us to validate the viability of this new type of object.
Who says promotional items can't be made from trash?
Want to be part of our movement and become an agent of change? Contact us to start a project and join our community!
We create our own raw material!
One of our core missions within the organization is to support large companies in taking a more responsible and environmentally friendly path. Some choices will be more focused on local production, others on showcasing our local designers, or encouraging the use of eco-friendly materials. The promotional products industry remains a very harmful environment from an environmental perspective. Internal decisions will often be the turning point, with the goal of leading a company toward greener and more humane values.
Beyond Object Creation
Kotmo strives to continually push its thinking further, offering innovative solutions and thinking better to slow the decline of our ecosystems. We have developed several objects using recycled materials, such as our tablet sleeve and the recycled felt passport holder. However, it remains very difficult to develop a material based on the principles of the circular economy that is affordable, accessible, and made in Quebec. In response to this obstacle, we have been researching for a year now, with the aim of creating our own raw material from organic waste.
Validate your steps
The first step was to determine which resource is sufficiently accessible in Quebec and produces enough organic waste to justify industrial processing. This is how we arrived at orange peel, a highly malleable and easy-to-use component for creating solid objects.
In recent years, health and nutrition have become much more important to a large proportion of Quebec's population. A market is developing for businesses offering vegetarian dishes, freshly squeezed juices, smoothies, and other products containing fruits and vegetables. Lifestyles are changing, and concern for climate change is becoming more legitimate. Composting is a relatively well-applied and well-accepted practice in several Quebec cities, but there is still much room for improvement for businesses. It would be more cost-effective, in terms of time and money, to send organic waste to the dump, rather than sorting it and paying a truck to pick it up at its location. We saw this opportunity and began our search to find a business willing to let us have their organic waste so we can recycle it and transform it into useful and sustainable items.
The first steps
The beginnings of this project were initiated in the summer of 2018 when several tests and trials were carried out using orange peels recovered from a freshly squeezed juice store in Montreal. We first attempted to mix various components of the orange with polymers to then observe the durability and resistance of these alloys.
Following several analyses, we continued our research in a more concrete manner in January 2019. An external chemist and industrial designer joined our team to help us develop the plan of attack for extracting orange flour. Here are some of the results obtained during our tests:
Through these experiments, we were able to conclude that it was possible to develop an eco-responsible material that could be used to create objects. Indeed, this research allowed us to develop a manufacturing process with multiple concentrations of flour with a biodegradable polymer. We now need to determine the environmental and economic criteria that must be met to allow us to validate the viability of this new type of object.
Who says promotional items can't be made from trash?
Want to be part of our movement and become an agent of change? Contact us to start a project and join our community!