1. Beginners guide to cooking bioplastics


On this page you will find the most important information plus two easy recipes to get you going. Lab Pastoe also offers an in-depth course on making biomaterials, on two consecutive Wednesday evenings from 18:30 - 21:30. Please see the reservation tool for upcoming events or send an email to labpastoe@hku.nl.

What are bioplastics made of?

As with 'industrial' plastics, bioplastics are made by combining a polymer to make the material strong, with a plasticizer to make the material flexible, and something to mix and dissolve the two in. Extra ingredients can be colorants and fillers, to give the material color, texture and added characteristics such as sturdiness, ferromagnetism or conductivity. Over the years we learned that a few drops of essential oil help prevent bacterial and fungal growth.

Biopolymers we often use are gelatin, agar, alginate, chitine, cellulose, carrageenan and starch. Plasticizers we use are vegetable glycerine and sorbitol. We mix and dissolve these ingredients in water.

As colorants we often use natural dyes, teas, food colorings or mica powders, and as optional fillers we use dried organic debris or (food) waste materials such as coffee, eggshells, sawdust, wool, textiles etc. We have a collection of all of these, some for sale, some free to use. Please ask staff about it.

Which tools do I need?

To cook bioplastics you will need a scale to weigh ingredients, an electric or induction cooker, a pan, a wooden spoon to stir, a measuring beaker and a cooking thermometer. All of these you can find in the cabinet in the washing-up / screenprinting room at Lab Pastoe.

You will also need a mold to cast your material in or on. The easiest way to cast flat materials is to use a wooden embroidery hoop, in which you clamp some pvc plastic (which can take heat) or waterproof textile. You can find these in the washing-up / screenprinting room or under the drying table at Lab Pastoe.

== The upside of using an embroidery hoop, is that the bioplastic will stick to the wood, but not to the plastic. This means that after your material gellifies enough (about 24-48 hours), you will be able to remove the outer hoop and the plastic from your material, and leave the material attached to the inner hoop to dry upright, with air able to flow on both sides of your material, speeding up the drying process. ==

Assembling ingredients and cooking

You can find all polymers, glycerine, colorants and fillers in the window cabinet in the office at Lab Pastoe. Please ask staff which are free to use, and which have a price.

To start, you can choose one of these two easy recipes, based on gelatine (not vegan, easier to use) or agar (algae-based, vegan):

  1. Biosilicone (gelatine-based)
    This is a flexible bioplastic that can be also used in the sewing machine to embroider on. Ingredients for a medium-sized embroidery hoop:
  1. Agar bioplastic (algae-based)
    This is a very flexible foil. Ingredients for a medium-sized embroidery hoop:

Revision #18
Created 8 November 2022 10:02:47 by Shirley
Updated 15 July 2024 19:58:10 by Shirley