Mezo is an exploratory research on social material practices with cooking waste oil utilisation at its centre. Recently this project turns leftover frying oil from fast food shops into accessible and affordable soap. Local material sourcing is combined with social activities to foster an inclusive circular neighbourhood network.
Local
Italy
Bolzano, BZ
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
As an individual in partnership with other persons
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This project explores possibilities of urban sourcing and social crafting to save resources and strengthen local communities. At first, soap was created out of leftover frying oil from local fast-food restaurants in the district of Don Bosco in Bolzano. In this process, participatory design was used to approach collective learning on recycling through communal events. Due to findings on cooking waste oil as a potential pollutant and underused resource further products like pastels are being developed. This direction is approached to substitute petroleum-based products with wax made from waste vegetable oil. While doing so, design research methods are applied to materials, production, and message of the objects. This is expressed in the design of shape, fragrance, pigments, and distribution of the products. The project is aligned with open-source techniques, it aims for more sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production considering the recent development goals of the European Union.
Soap
Waste oil
Social material practice
Urban sourcing
Circular transformation
Only in the European Union, more than 4 million tons of Waste Cooking Oils are produced yearly and just 25% is collected (1). Moreover, it has been estimated that about 15 million tons of WCOs are inadequately disposed of every year worldwide, mainly through public sewerage (1). When this kind of waste reaches water and soil it represents a hazard for ecosystems and wildlife, potentially polluting water resources and causing many problems to the wastewater treatment plant's operation (2). On a narrower local scale, we observed that a single kebab shop consumes at least 20 litres of sunflower oil per week. Therefore, considering the value chain of this plant-based oil, we decided to intervene before the disposal phase. We collected used oil directly from a fast food shop and processed it with lye (strongly alkaline liquid) to produce soap. The rushed process of frying and disposing of gets interrupted and an expanded lifetime of a soap bar starts. In a further experimental stage, we went back to the history of soap to realise it is possible to extract lye from wood ash. Thus we decided to collect ash from pizza restaurants to implement our recipe. Mezo is an ongoing project, but most of all a systematic taking back of ghosts and urban sourcing methodology.
1 Recycling of food byproducts: Waste Cooking Oils exploitation for industrial purposes (June 2019) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334363665_Recycling_of_food_byproducts_Waste_Cooking_Oils_exploitation_for_industrial_purposes
2 Environmental impacts caused by residual vegetable oil in the soil-plant system (2017)
https://www.redalyc.org/journal/4675/467553545021/html/
The key intention of the product is to showcase the transformation of something considered disgusting into something considered precious to highlight the unused potential of materials through recycling. Soap as an example pictorially shows the reversal of “dirty” waste materials such as used frying oil and ash into something you literally use to clean yourself. This material approach was also used aesthetically. Plastic fry trays were repurposed as moulds and give shape to the soap bars in connection to the source. Decoration patterns and engraved details of the single-use plastic get transferred to the soap bar and give it a peculiar but sleek finish, which is valuable to counteract preconceptions of recycled products. By taking up the form of the tray also the design of the packaging gets repurposed and emphasised.
Local sourcing is continued with the fragrance design of the soap bar. As we did a sensorial walk through the neighbourhood to collect different herbs and leaves we gathered new impressions of the neighbourhood which were incorporated into the soap.
This learning led us to the question of scent related to soap and its strong connection to emotions and memory which we want to explore participative in the context of belonging in an urban environment.
Furthermore, the malleability of soap is utilised for participatory design, as we did in an event where bypassers could shape the soap. This follows the goal of not solely creating a product but using it as a medium for exploration and education on recycling.
Already the initial idea was influenced by the way people used to invent new techniques due to a lack of resources. During the great depression, soap was made of ash-lye and oil.
When talking to people in the neighbourhood of Don Bosco, Bolzano nearly everyone was somehow connected to soap making. Some did it themselves, some remembered their grandmothers washing clothes with stones and ash in the river and others told us about games for children. During interventions on the crossroad, right in front of the kebab shop, people with different cultural backgrounds came together and created a common soap. Through soap making, stakeholders were connected.
Through an accessible open-source recipe, we want to offer a playground for further development of soap-making and exchange. As it is an easily approachable procedure and the process is based on a free waste material, a broad variety of people are included.
No electricity is needed since it is a cold process. Moreover, used frying oil is a resource that has a low monetary value. Through its transformation into soap or other goods, within a microlocal radius, a circular economy is fostered and the neighbourhood community is strengthened.
Using urban mining as an ideation for the product led to a strong local bond throughout the whole process. Starting with the sourcing which got us in touch with multiple fast food places in the neighbourhood. To approach the educational aspect we made interventions in front of the kebab places giving away free soap right at the source showing the zero metre production line. This was a matter of inviting citizens to a local exploration of recycling.
Naturally, corner fast food places are meeting spots for citizens with intermixed cultural and economical backgrounds. Therefore we used soap making as a platform for exchange and conversation-starting. Bypassers could collectively express themselves by embossing a big board of soap. By hosting this interactive event in an underused but busy spot we witnessed a discursive vitalisation of a sidewalk by introducing a playful element.
We will continue zero metre interventions and workshops to explore the transparency of products and citizen involvement. On the one hand to include and educate people on sustainable modes of production and on the other hand to use soapmaking as a medium and conversation starter for bigger social issues as we observed in the first intervention which became a chance for communal exchange.
The project started in consultation with the social cooperative Officine Vispa intending to vitalise the neighbourhood community of a district in Bolzano called Don Bosco. This cooperative provided us with insight on local social issues.
Due to the urban sourcing multiple local fast food shops are part of the process, which later on also became locations for workshops and interventions. This highlighted the material source but also includes the people working there in the educational recycling process. Because of the open source and participatory character also passing citizens become stakeholders.
Experimentation and production mostly take place in the workshop FabLab Bolzano which is suited to test DIY and open-source methods, since the workshop is also open to all citizens.
The social practice of soap-making combines a lot of diverse disciplines. Looking back at the development process, each phase brought up its challenges and with it the need to get in contact with different fields of expertise.
Already at the beginning of the project, when getting to know the neighbourhood, we applied different design research tools, like material ethnography and street interventions. These methods allowed us to perceive the area in a new and uncommon way, paying attention to hidden details. During the process of material-focused ethnographic exploration, we got in contact with various facilities, from pet clinics over gas stations to kebab stores, always looking for leftover products.
Through this process of exchange, we got in contact with a kebab shop owner, with whom we could cooperate. The act of regularly collecting leftover oil built the basis for a partnership, not only for oil supply but for an exchange of soap-related knowledge and social interventions right in front of their shop.
Starting from DIY experiments, based on open-source community platforms and Youtube tutorials, we later approached a chemist to get a deeper understanding of the chemical reactions and the composition of soap.
This learning led us to the question of scent related to soap and its strong connection to emotions and memory. Therefore we first did a sensorial walk through the neighbourhood, collecting different herbs and leaves. Additionally, we contacted an olfactory designer, with whom we discovered the functional advantage of preserving the soap through the use of essential oils.
Furthermore, we got to know a local auto producer, contacted the local waste disposal company, and planned weekly revisions with professors from different faculties.
Thus, one can see that every step caused and influenced the other, and only through this broad vari
Soap is mostly an industrial product, it must perform and sell well. We hardly ever ask ourselves how it is formulated, or why it should be said to contain rare and ‘precious’ ingredients to be desirable. Could this resource-demanding basic commodity be the answer and visualisation of the need for systemic change? Could we wash our hands with an ingredient we usually do not question ingesting?
Moreover, vegetable oil is a precious resource, it is condensed energy, in nature, it would rarely be found in such a concentration, it is, therefore, vital to find ways to reintegrate it with the environment in a digestible way. Mezo is a symbolic and simple example of how perceptions can be shifted, transforming something from ‘disgusting’ to precious. Sharing this transformation through public actions and participatory design creates a platform for education and experimentation on circular design. The objective of urban sourcing gives character to the products and representation to the neighbourhood. This nudges creativity because of the search for unconventional substitutes for materials, fragrances and colours.
Inadequately disposed and unused waste cooking oil is a worldwide issue. Especially in areas without centralised waste systems, customised and accessible solutions could help prevent pollution and save resources. By introducing low-tech products in an open-source manner multiple groups are empowered to replicate and work on solutions in a decentralised way. We started to distribute recipes and manuals for soapmaking with waste oil and want to continue further products with full transparency and replicability.
Another intention of mezo is to create vegetable wax out of waste oil that can be used to substitute products that consist of paraffin. Finding alternatives that are recycled and not petroleum based could be a widely applicable action to a more resource-saving and fossil-independent industry. Therefore we work on pastels made of leftover oil and natural and waste pigments.
One core element of circular economies is the manageable harvesting, production, and distribution process. It functions as a small circle, within a specific local area, based on direct communication and reliance. If this principle is multiplied, a big net of several alternative circular economies is created. This net has the power to make a change on a global scale, as it doesn’t collapse if one circle dissolves.
Oil is ubiquitously present, nevertheless, traditions and usage differ in relation to geographical and social environments. Acting on a local level allowed us to test things on-site and to get into a loop of experimenting, reflecting, adjusting, and iterating. Moreover, we were able to build personal and physical relations between people within a small and concrete reality. However, oil exists worldwide, and with it the issue of soil and water pollution through oil contamination. This fact makes it a global issue.
Thus, we don’t see the concept as an individual closed project, but as a practice, transferable to other places in the world. Therefore it is important to keep a balance between concrete comprehensible steps and a flexible framework, adjustable to different local realities. The process of soap making is described in an open-source recipe, approachable both for individual usage of households as well as for restaurants or companies. The transformation of waste oil into soap can be seen as an exemplary scenario on a micro-scale to open up this field of potential on a macro level.
