Blood, Bones And Bacteria: The Next Generation Of 'Smart' And Sustainable Materials?

For designers, sourcing materials is a tricky, expensive and often ‘at arm’s length’ trade. In an increasingly enlightened age, understanding the origin and environmental impact of materials is essential in achieving transparency, which consumers are beginning to demand. Textile mills and material manufacturers operate at scale, making them inaccessible to emerging designers and limiting (or preventing) their involvement in the textile design and creation process. A new age of designer is emerging who is utilizing waste and biological systems to invent new materials entirely, and in the process, they are reshaping notions of luxury, ethics, wellness, and sustainability.

Belonging to this cohort is Rosie Broadhead, who has been exploring the benefits of embedding probiotic bacteria into textiles in contact with the skin. The rationale behind this pursuit is the extreme washing, sterilizing and general disruption we cause to our skin’s natural defense mechanisms in an effort to remain ‘clean’, which actually removes, or at best imbalances, our skin’s naturally occurring beneficial bacteria.

Scientific research demonstrates that the skin biome (the ecosystem of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses that live on the skin) protects us against infections and acts as a barrier to some allergens and environmental toxins. Conditions like rosacea, acne, and psoriasis can be either caused or exacerbated by an imbalance of these microbes, often triggered by our germophobic washing tendencies. Other studies have indicated a correlation between skin microbiome health and overall immune function, declaring that the “skin barrier structure and function is essential to human health.”

Broadhead teamed up with Microbiologist Dr. Christopher Callewaert of Ghent University to test the encapsulation and adhesion of probiotic bacteria to textile surfaces in contact with the skin, in an effort to maintain or restore its optimal levels of healthy bacteria. The encapsulated bacteria are released when activated by sweat, thereby allowing beneficial bacteria to dominate other less beneficial microorganisms. She says this mechanism can also support cell regeneration, reduce body odor and boost the skin’s immunity. In her SKIN II prototype she has identified the optimal ratio and placement of the encapsulated probiotic bacteria to restore the natural balance of the skin, which was verified through testing conducted by Dr. Callewaert.

An obvious drawback would appear to be that washing the garment would release the bacteria. When I posed this to Broadhead she said that during lab tests, “after a 30 degree wash the samples still had a very good bacteria count. Also, the microencapsulation process means that with the movement of the body and abrasion from the washing machine the bacteria can be released over time.” On the subject of commercialization, she says the next step would be to work with existing microencapsulation technology already used in industry to establish scalability.

On the subject of extending her concept to include other beneficial nutrients in textiles, she says that it is possible for vitamins to be incorporated in addition to bacteria. “We also have specific bacteria on our skin that are beneficial to specific areas of our body,” she says, so there is scope for refinement of her current prototype in terms of the bacteria placement. These are areas she wants to explore in the future.

Regarding current challenges, Broadhead explained “the biggest limitations with my current prototype is [not] having the facilities and equipment to scale up the technology. I have had a lot of interest in the benefits of this project from men [seeking body odor control solutions] and expanding into menswear prototypes in collaboration with Ghent University will be my next step.”

It is impossible (fortunately) to escape the grave limitations the planet faces in terms of resource consumption and global warming. Scientists have warned we have approximately 11 years to halt irreversible climate change. In the meantime, business as usual continues with the mass consumption and disposal of clothing and homeware products made from virgin materials that end up in landfills or incinerators – often shortly after purchase. What of the masses of byproducts and waste that offers a potential solution to resource-intensive virgin fiber production, yet remains untapped?

Looking in the most unusual of places for waste was Clemence Grouin-Rigaux, whose local butcher shop, Turner and George, provided food, blood, bones, and even hair, for thought. There has been a wave of veganism sweeping western culture, and plant-based food consumption is on the rise, but a billion animals are still slaughtered annually in Britain for the meat industry (60 billion worldwide). Dietary preferences aside, the waste generated from meat production is vast. Abbatoir waste including bone, fat, skin and hair is often landfilled or incinerated, releasing toxic substances (sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides) into the land and air. These compounds are all detrimental to air quality and human health, making a strong case for the sustainable processing of this waste to avoid such toxic decomposition or incineration. “We should start discussing deadstock with the same intensity that we consider livestock,” said Grouin-Rigaux. “Avoiding waste or almost pretending that it does not exist is increasingly [having] dangerous consequences [for] us and the environment.”

Taking her inspiration from Palaeolithic notions of the whole animal being a gift and therefore used in its entirety for food, tools, treatments and more, she began exploring how she could use all forms of pig waste to create new materials. Driven by the work of the 18th and 19th centuries scientists who began experimenting with animals in search of plasticity (Bois Durci is one), she succeeded in establishing a repeatable and straightforward procedure for making various objects with the slaughter waste. The material outputs range from a flexible and robust plastic-like material (when in thin layers) to a durable solid material similar to resin (when used in dense objects, like the stool shown above).

The core material in Grouin-Rigaux’s products is a bone or skin glue, which is created by prolonged boiling of animal connective tissues which contain collagen fibers. This glue is then colored with either “blood powder” or “bone char” pigment. Grouin-Rigaux explained that the bone char is created by heating the bones in a sealed vessel (a metal box, for example) to temperatures as high as 700 °C, leaving only activated carbon. Blood powder is simply dehydrated blood, not unlike the ‘blood meal’ process for making black pudding. The resulting blood flakes are then crushed into a powder to add to the ‘glue’ as a pigment. The materials are biodegradable, recyclable and compostable.

In making a range of objects, including grooming tools, a toy duck and everyday furniture items, Grouin-Rigaux seeks to change our perception of waste. She wants us to view it “both as a valuable commodity” and “culturally, as something that doesn’t need to be discarded.” Importantly, guiding Grouin-Rigaux through this process was Pilar Bolumburu, Designer and Material Researcher at Materiom. She says “he taught me about hygrometry parameters (measurement of the humidity of air and gases) and basic lab techniques and equipment.” With a toolkit of waste and a determination to demonstrate its commercial value, Clemence Grouin-Rigaux says “with Hidden beauty, I want the industry to consider the possibility to invest in this idea.”

Part of a growing movement driven by turning food waste into desirable products alongside the likes of Chips Board, who are turning potato waste into spectacle frames, Ty Syml by Adam Davies who uses brewing grains and mycelium to create lampshades and Ananas Anam, the creators of pineapple leaf ‘leather’, let’s hope Hidden Beauty catalyses the normalization of turning waste into sustainable and ubiquitous everyday products.