This year’s winner of the James Dyson Award, Gabe Tavas, found a way to use bacterial cellulose to form a material, which imitates exotic woods from the Amazon Rainforest.
Sheets of cellulose made from environmentally-friendly kombucha waste, are blended together and embedded into a gel. As the gel dries and hardens, it can be pressed into flat sheets of wood-like material that can then be sanded, cut and coated with resins just like regular wood.
All of this happens without the need to cut down any trees, because the cellulose sheets are produced using microorganisms.
While we still don’t know how to create structural timber that can be used in construction, this wood alternative can already be made into jewelry, guitar picks, coasters and other consumer products we use in our everyday lives.
What do you think of this development? How would the ability to create wood without cutting down trees change our lives? Please leave your comments below.