Serve your orange juice in a cup printed from oranges peels !

What if instead of throwing away, we repaired, recycled, reused ? The circular economy makes it possible to rethink our production and consumption methods in order to optimize the use of natural resources and thus limit the waste generated.

To help consumers participate in this fundamental movement, there is nothing like a beautiful demonstration combining usefulness and experience. Here, for example, drink a glass of orange juice from a cup printed in 3D from the pressed orange peels, all before our eyes. This bar, of a new genre and named after “Feel the Peel”, was designed by an Italian design firm, Carlo Ratti Association in partnership with energy supplier Eni.

How does it work ? The machine can accommodate up to 1,500 oranges. It starts as soon as a customer places an order. And the show starts! The oranges slide towards the machine that extracts the juice from both halves. The remaining peels fall through a tube where they accumulate at the bottom of the machine until the quantity collected is sufficient to… start 3D printing on the glass that will hold your freshly squeezed juice !
Indeed, while oranges peels wait to be transformed into cups, they are dried and mixed with polylactic acid (PLA), which converts the material into a bioplastic. Once the process is complete, the 3D printing of the cup is started!

As explained by the Carlo Ratti agency, the purpose of this prototype is to show that consumer products can be designed to encourage zero waste behaviour. Future iterations of Feel the Peel could include new features, such as printing fabric for clothing from oranges peels.

While consumers expectations are expected to increase in the coming years regarding brand’s commitment in favor of ecology, it is becoming essential for them to demonstrate in a tangible way the principle of a circular economy.

The machine, developed by the design firm, perfectly fulfils this role: it very simply helps to understand how oranges can be used far beyond their juice. Just look at the video seen previously to believe that another world is possible, allowing you to imagine a universe of perpetual recycling where the glass bottles in my garbage can would serve as a raw material to reprint the broken tiles in my building… In short, the experience immediately transforms the consumer into a citizen and makes him want to take part in a more virtuous consumption by visualizing the impact of his consumption.

Au-delà de son message environnemental, c’est aussi l’occasion pour le consommateur de vivre une émotion forte qui sort de l’ordinaire. En cela, elle correspond à un des 7 moteurs de consommation identifiés par l’Echangeur, qui n’est autres que “Expérience”.

Beyond its environmental message, it is also an opportunity for the consumer to live a strong emotion that is out of the ordinary. In fact, it corresponds to one of the 7 consumption motors identified by the Exchanger, which is none other than “Experience”.

How to capture the consumer’s attention on a sensitive subject ? By an effect of discovery and surprise that can even be shared, later, on social networks!  It is also this “waouh” effect that we currently find at the Adidas store on the Champs-Elysées which presents its FutureCraft Loop, the second generation project of its recyclable trainers, made with the material of the first models, washed and transformed into granules, themselves remelted.

And the brand proves that it is able to create a new pair of shoes from the old one by showcasing it in its concept store. Judging by the number of people who have watched the experience, the operation seems to be successful here too…