Everyone wastes food. Some diligently save scraps for the compost bin. Others make stock from curated selections of trimmings. Thanks to recent Royal College of Art graduate Kosuke Araki there is another way the obsessively conscientious can make the most of that which can’t be eaten. His project Food Waste Ware utilizes normal household food waste to create a range of beautiful tableware. By carbonizing much of the material, making glue from skin and bones, and pressing the mixture into silicone molds, he is able to make a range of subtle organic vessels with the color and luminosity of charcoal.
Through investigating a universally common waste material for potential use value Araki is able to address a number of important questions. By enabling individuals to create value out of waste, they are able to truly consider excess and the alternatives as the black tableware stacks up. While the result of this process is always going to be black and reasonably consistent due to the molds, the variability between people means the ingredients are going to change from house to house around the world. In this way Food Waste Ware is not just about sustainability, or employing traditional material processes, but also about local materials and individual manufacturing.
