completely biodegradable baby products collection made out of nuxit® biomaterial
Give a gift that gives back. re•born is a collection of fully biodegradable baby items that can be discarded guilt free or simply planted, providing nutrients for soil. Made out of new bio material nuxit®, using local organic waste source - walnut shells. re•born aims to educate kids about tactility and promotes indigenous tree species. After you are done with the product, simply plant it and a new life will grow out of it as a memory on your child not being a baby any more - a lifetime gift! :)
Cross-border/international
Slovenia
Spain
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Italy
Murska Sobota
Barcelona
Milan
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
As an individual in partnership with other persons
First name: Lara Last name: Baler Gender: Female Age: 30 Please attach a copy of your national ID/residence card:
By ticking this box, I certify that the information regarding my age is factually correct. : Yes Nationality: Slovenia Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: 10 Ulica Stefana Kuzmica Town: MURSKA SOBOTA Postal code: 9000 Country: Slovenia Direct Tel:+386 51 421 026 E-mail:AR.LARABALER@GMAIL.COM Website:https://re-born-nuxit.com/
First name: Boris Last name: Ouček Gender: Male Age: 30 Please attach a copy of your national ID/residence card:
By ticking this box, I certify that the information regarding my age is factually correct. : Yes Nationality: Slovenia If relevant, please select your other nationality: Slovenia Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Polana 18a Town: Murska Sobota Postal code: 9000 Country: Slovenia Direct Tel:+386 51 421 026 E-mail:boris.oucek@gmail.com
URL:https://www.instagram.com/re.born.nuxit/ Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): @re•born @nuxit @oreika #biomaterials #sustainable #zerowaste #noplastic #babyproducts #treefree #circular #newmaterials #educational #green
URL:https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087760222281 Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): @re•born @nuxit @oreika #biomaterials #sustainable #zerowaste #noplastic #babyproducts #treefree #circular #newmaterials #educational #green
Yes
New European Bauhaus or European Commission websites
re•born is a collection of fully biodegradable baby items that can be discarded guilt free or simply planted, providing nutrients for the soil. Made out of new bio material nuxit®, using local organic waste source – walnut shells. re•born aims to educate kids about tactility and materiality.
In our world of self-centered societies, we often forget about how much we contribute to growing mountains of wasted items. There is an incredibly wide offer of baby products which contribute to a huge accumulation of discarded baby products that are mostly made of hard plastic or mixed synthetic materials. On the other hand, why wouldn’t we use a potential waste as a new primary source? Simple, low environmental impact processes using blow molding, offer a wide range of different forms such as Lupi, Gea, Oreika.
re•born is a collection of short lifespan baby products that are generally used only for a few years during the childhood period but can later be discarded guilt free, or simply – planted, providing nutrients for the soil. Our newest product baby rattle Oreika is more than a toy. It has seeds inside it and after you are done with it, you can plant it to give a new life – you can choose among indigenous tree species that fit your region best. + the sound of the Oreika rattle is conditioned by your choice of seeds! 😉
A lifetime gift, that will grow together with your child! 🙂
Circular Material
Social Inclusion
Sustainable Technology
Zero Plastic
Innovative Bio Material
DID YOU KNOW THAT BABY PRODUCTS INDUSTRY IS THE MOST PLASTIC INTENSIVE INDUSTRY IN THE WORLD? 90% of baby products on the market are made of plastic, only 3,8% of that plastic is recycled and 80% of all baby products end up in trash and later in a landfill. Plastic baby products can contain heavy metals such as lead or cadmium or other harmful chemicals such as dioxins. Manufacturers gravitate to plastic because it’s cheap, versatile and dependable. One of the great things about plastic is that it’s durable, but once it ends up in the environment we don’t want it to be so durable. Can we reduce plastic in baby products? We are introducing nuxit® material - a new bio material made out of local walnut shells. After your child outgrows his/her re•born products, you can discard them guilt free, because the material is 100% biodegradable and it will dissapear in a contact with a soil (and its microorganisms) in a time range of 4-5 months, providing nutrients. Or simply plant our products after you do not need them any more - and a new life (tree) will grow out of it - as a memory of your child not being a baby any more! Not only that we want to offer an environmentally friendly alternative to the plastically intensively industry by presenting a new bio material, but we are also contributing to protection and regeneration of natural ecosystems with implementing European autoctonic tree species into our products.
We do not only want to sell products but we would also like to contribute to educate people. We want to keep our material and products honest in their natural colour and customers do appreciate to see, where really is their product from.
We have been working with a child developmental therapist to create product to improve baby motoric skills and to learn tactility by different surface finishes (smoother or rougher). We would like to provoke a message: where does my product comes from?. Products are usually not just growing on trees (except in our case, as a walnut does 😉 ) but there is a long process behind it and it is important for new generations to learn this. Our products are tree-free; we are not cutting a tree. We are planting it instead!
Another important aspect of the product is to raise awarness about autochthonous tree species in a specific local environment. We believe that by doing this, people will be more attentive on buying local product with a positive environmental impact.
A strong participatory process has been our key value since staring the project. Our aim was to evoke traditions that we have been losing through the last decades. According to the statistic, more than 30% of all the elderly population above 55 years old feels unuseful and without a purpose. We wanted to address this issue by introducing communities inclusion programmes in the stages of collecting a raw material for our Nuxit material. A tradition of old people breaking walnuts in old winter days is strong in our home country. We would like to keep this tradition alive in order to prevent social exclusion. We did a partnership with local nursing homes and local social institution for people with mental and physical disabilities, to involve their residents into the creative process of making a nuxit® material. Later on when the products were done, they would pass it on to the kinder garden children and this is how the circle of a material-product or old-young is concluded.
Local cultural traditions and heritage was our core idea when starting the project. Not only that we want to offer an environmentally friendly alternative to the plastically intensively industry by presenting a new bio material, but we are also contributing to protection and regeneration of natural ecosystems with implementing autoctonic tree species into our products. How does it work? Our newest product, Oreika is a baby rattle. Most of us had a rattle when we were babies, but they were probably not biodegradable. Oreika is a game-changer in baby products industry since it offers a special quality of experience. A citizen does not only buys a rattle, but it buys a process, a story. When choosing Oreika, a citizen has a variety of options to choose a tree, that he/she would like to plant for his/her child. There are 8 different autoctonic tree seed options for Oreika now, all of them chosen precisely for the area they can be planted at. With it we want to educate people about the importance of a cultural heritage of a specific region and to promote an importance of planting autoctonic tree species in our local environment. A civil society is involved into the concept in the early stages (senior dorms and different other public institutions included) and have been involved to benefit from low environmental impact processes and products.
We started to create our project during our master studies in material design in Barcelona. From experimentation and numerous testing stages in the laboratories, we moved on to the bio material implementation. Beside our mentors during the studies, external bio material consultants were included into the process. The project was always focusing on using raw organic materials, this is why we connected with farmers in Catalonia and in Slovenia. As we had our material ready, we had to work on shaping it and giving it a form. We did that in a local environment, using contemporary production machines such as injection molding and blow molding. The local social groups of seniors and institutions for people with mental and physical disabilities were involved in a regional scale. Our branding strategy was built upon international (European) goals, since we are primarly addressing european institutions and agricultural systems.
The re•born project started with Lara studying material design studies in Barcelona. She always was advocate of a sustainable lifestile and she was working towards creating something, that can have a positive impact broader. Already during the studies the Nuxit material was chosen as one of the best projects and was soon selected to be presented at the Dutch Design Week and is currently nominated for a Green Product Award. There was a lot of interest into the material, since the world need some radical changes in a field of new bio materials. Lara continued implementing the material into a baby product industry - why? Because the baby product industry is one of the most poluting industries in the world. A strong demand for biodegradable baby products was tracked and Lara decided to expand the team with additional technical and financial expert. Boris is a mechanical engineer occupied with building our blow moulding machine in order to upscale the production. We are a team of young, curious and innovative mind, that want to give something good to the world. Our multi-disciplinarity is enriching our outcome. Lara as a designer would not be able to develop the project so far with an idea and few prototypes. When our mechanical engineer team player joined us, that was a breaking point into something bigger and brighter.
A balance between inclusion, aesthetics and sustainability makes our design concept exemplary and innovative. We have innovated a new material which has never existed before. Beside it, we are also offering an implementation of European autoctonic tree species into the project, in order to promote replanting of local tree species. The project raises awarness and strengthens a relationship with a local natural environment. We are living in a world, where some radical changes in mind and in actions are necessary in order to preserve our planet. There are many brands that are offering organic, green and even biodegradable products, but unfortunately, we are fooling ourselves with promoting greenwashing. We at re•born are offering an honest and creative approach. We do not only want to sell pieces but we would also like to contribute to educate people. We want to keep our material and products honest in their natural colour and customers do appreciate to see, where really is their product from. We are also improving motoric capacities of a baby and offering to learn tactility by different surface finishes (smoother or rougher) and we are providing customisation and we have tracked some positive changes by our development collaborator. We would like to provoke a message: where does my product come from?. Products are usually not just growing on trees (except in our case ;) ) but there is a long process behind it and it is important for new generations to learn this. Our products are tree-free; we are not cutting a tree. We are planting it instead!
Our project is set broadly, but with attention to the local natural environment. We take local agricultural waste, turn it into something valuable and provide a solution to plant a local autochthonous tree species. We are a tree-free game changer on a baby products market. Our vision since the beginning was to offer a variety of biodegradable materials. Until today we have been working with our Nuxit material, which is made out of walnut shells, but in the future we would like to provide bigger variety of the products, working with hemp, oat and buckwheat shells - always local waste raw materials from agricultural waste. As a result, there will be more variety in their visual appearance. We are working with low-energy process and organic waste raw materials. The technology, processes and products could be easily replicated or transferred in other countries, with a condition, that we stay true to ourselves and always use local raw material and offer to plant local autochthonous tree species for a specific local region.
Our aim from the beginning has always been to work with local raw waste materials, to give them a new life with creating innovative and sustainable products and to give back to the nature. Our slogan is: "give a gift that gives back".
We believe that we are addressing global challenges of:
- huge plastic pollution (90% of all baby products are plastic, just 3,8% of that plastic is recycled, 80% of all baby products end up in a trash and landfills after a short lifespan). We are introducing Nuxit, 100% biodegradable bio material as an environmentally friendlier alternative to the conventional plastic.
- agricultural waste. We are giving it another purpose and value
- social exclusion of marginalized groups. We have partnered with some institutions as local nursing homes and local social institution for people with mental and physical disabilities, to involve their residents into the creative process of making a nuxit® material.
- generational isolation. Our products got also an interest by educational institutes such as kindergardens, Montessori schools and Biotechnology Faculty and would like to implement the product into their collections. By doing it, we would provide a link between nutsing homes and kindergardens and make a multi-generational cooperation more creative by developing products together
- less CO2 global carboon footprint. By using organic waste material that is already waste, so the supply chain is much more direct than creating a new synthetic material. The Nuxit material is 100% biodegradable, simple production processes are used (injection molding, blow moldin) on existing conventional plastic production machines.
- deforestation. We are promoting planting new trees by offering tree-free products.
