Crispy

Recycling non-recycled packaging, crisp packets

2023

Crisps are an integral part of British culture, with the UK being the third-highest consumer of salty snacks worldwide, consuming 6 billion packets of crisps annually. However, due to the high salt and oil content in crisps, the packaging requires a high-tech multilayered polymer structure that is difficult to recycle and currently is not accepted in home recycling. In today’s conscientious era, where the push is to minimise single-use plastics or increase recycling, this particular type of packaging tends to be ignored, or its underlying issues remain largely unnoticed. Furthermore, the current recycling system lacks the necessary resources to identify, sort, and separate the different layers. Leading packaging like crisp bags to end up incinerated, landfilled or littered the environment. Crispy addresses these challenges by salvaging difficult-to-recycle plastic packaging and recycling each material used separately. Through a specialised separation process, each crisp packet is delaminated into three distinct materials: PP film, metallic PET film, and ink.

The recycling process used in this project for crisp packets involves multiple steps for efficient recycling, combining chemical and mechanical recycling. After collection, all the crisp bags are washed to get rid of grease, any remaining food content and odour. Then, the clean packaging is left in a solvent bath overnight, and the different plastic films are peeled off from each other. The solvent used in this process can be reused several times and does not exceed 100ml for delaminating 15 packets. Ink extraction is also completed within the same solvent bath by scraping the pigments of the films with a brush. Each resulting colour represents a specific brand and flavour of crisps. After cleaning and colour extraction, the PP films are shredded to be remelted and cast to shape the bowls. The metallised PET is hand-made into threads by twisting and weaving together. Even though this film is recyclable, it is not as common as recycling the delaminated PP. Therefore, it is used as a woven case for the bowls that can be disassembled.

This project has been showcased during:
Lethaby Gallery 2024, Soil, Toil & Table
Milan Design Week 2023, We Will Design, BASE
London Design Festival 2023, Materials Matter, Bargehouse Oxo Tower
Dutch Design Week 2023, Micro Labs Eindhoven