Tokyo promoting company TBWAHakuhodo and plastics producer Koushi Chemical Business Co have created Shellmet, a tough hat comprised of discarded clam shells and recycled plastic.
The product was designed as a protecting accent for the fishing neighborhood within the village of Sarufutsu in Japan, the place roughly 40,000 tons of clams are wasted every year, based on Shellmet’s creators.
The Shellmet is held with a nylon barb and is formed like an outsized, notched clamshell.
Its construction is manufactured from Shellstic – a fabric developed with Koushi Chemical Business Co that mixes clam shells from the seafood business with recycled plastic.
“Shocks are probably the most generally consumed shellfish by the Japanese and are additionally the shellfish that end in probably the most waste,” TBWAHakuhodo informed Dezeen. “We questioned if we might flip these shells into a brand new useful resource as an alternative of waste?”
“Shells that protected themselves from exterior enemies at the moment are reborn as one thing that protects human life.”
Shellstic is created by boiling and sterilizing collected shells, that are then finely crushed, combined with plastic and inserted right into a helmet mould.
Koushi Chemical Business Co used mineral pigments to paint the fabric, out there in both sundown pink, ocean blue, sandy cream, coral white or deep black.
In response to its creators, the helmet is predicated on biomimicry – a design technique by which techniques present in nature are adopted by people to unravel issues.
“Shellmet incorporates a particular rib construction into its design that mimics the construction of seashells,” defined TBWAHakuhodo.
“Based mostly on an inside experiment, we found that [helmet’s] sturdiness is improved by about 30% in comparison with instances the place the rib construction is just not out there, regardless of the small quantity of fabric used.”
Though the helmet was initially designed for Sarufutsu’s fishing employees, the promoting company stated the Shellmet can be used as a biking helmet or protecting helmet throughout catastrophe prevention work.
The product is scheduled to go on sale to the general public this spring.
It’s not the primary time that designers and researchers have used waste seafood shells to create new supplies. Different initiatives which have used comparable composites embrace architectural tiles comprised of mussels and furnishings for a Gothenburg restaurant made utilizing leftover oyster shells from the kitchen.
Pictures is by Junya Taguchi.