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Bowl Medium - 11 PERCENT by Nicholas Plunkett
11 PERCENT is a set of conceptual tableware, which portray a critique towards our vast consumption of toilet paper. By using recovered cellulose from used toilet paper in combination with porcelain, a new material was created to reveal the issues behind this hidden waste flow.
Globally, 83 million rolls are produced every day. In Germany, we use toilet paper as our first choice to clean ourselves with, as we have been culturally conditioned to do so.
An average virgin toilet paper roll weighs around 90 grams and needs 50 litres of water to be manufactured. One tree produces about 200 rolls of toilet paper and each day about 27.000 trees are cut down for global consumption.
The recovered cellulose deriving from used toilet paper, which is used inside the porcelain, is a material provided by the EU funded company CirTec. The Dutch company descripes themselves as an innovative service, that reclaims and upcycles cellulose from sewage treatment plants.
The main focus of the company is concentrating on energy efficiency, cellulose recovery, the production of biopolymers and withdrawing nutrients for fertilisation. In addition, the cellulose is used for insulating housing and as an additive for asphalt.
Within the cellulose fibres, 11% contain traces of faeces, hormones, medical residues and minerals. Inside the porcelain the waste water residues sinter and are encapsulated.
These present themselves as black indentations, which are most li- kely traces of calcium carbonate, copper, zinc, iron and aluminium.
The dishes are hygienic and safe, as they are fired at 1250°C. Most harmful bacteria is eliminated at about 130°C. But is our disgust also eliminated?
The food we digested and forgot about, comes back to us and lives on immortally inside the dishes.
The industrial concept of CirTec is a process that can be used instead of or in conjunction with the primary treatment of a sewage treatment plant, short STP.
The installation at common wastewater treatment plant can produce up to 400 kilograms of cellulose per day. The project also introduces significant cost reductions for STPs by removing the toilet paper, which otherwise is an expensive and time-consu- ming endeavour. In most cases, the toilet paper and various other substances are burnt or chemically removed. The project allows the wastewater to be transformed into a usable resource, which would allow a STP to be part of a circular economy.
After various steps of extracting, filtering, washing and cleaning the cellulose, the material can be used. Yet, due to its residues and sterilisation, the cellulose has diminished in its quality.
In order to work with this type of cellulose, Nicholas Plunkett undertook several experiments over long periods of time, looking for techniques or materials which were suitable to work with this new resource.
As a result, Nicholas came to find that ceramic materials reveal interesting properties of the used toilet paper.
Paper clay is a material which has not yet implemented itself into an industrial way of manufacturing. The material is mostly used by artists, especially for large volume plastics.
Cellulose fibres are essential in creating paper clay, these usually originate from fresh virgin toilet paper. Toilet paper has the optimal fiber length to be broken up and turned into a paper pulp.
With the recovered cellulose, the use of fresh toilet paper for creating paper clay becomes obsolete and offers the material a new depth of sustainability and story.
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