ANA TOPOLE

Work / Sustainable design

Dajz, Regenerative packaging

From tomatoes for tomatoes.

Project Details

Category
Sustainable design
Discipline
Regenerative design, material development, packaging design
Team
Individual project

Regenerative packaging made from discarded tomato stems that grows new tomatoes after use.

A round container holding a tomato, a tray of cherry tomatoes on the vine and its lid, all made of pressed tomato stem fibre, on a bed of chopped tomato stems

Context

A personal wish for sustainable vegetable packaging.

The project started out of the designer’s personal wish for a sustainable packaging option for vegetables. She likes to buy cherry tomatoes even in the winter months, when she cannot pick them from her own garden.

Small-fruited tomatoes are not sold loose because they are delicate and prone to bursting. Meanwhile, most tomatoes are increasingly sold pre-packaged, partly to stop customers from entering the code for cheaper imported tomatoes on the scale while actually taking more expensive, locally grown ones.

Close-up of cherry tomatoes on the vine in a rectangular tray of pressed tomato stem fibre, with more trays and a round container around it
Cherry tomatoes in a Dajz tray.

Material

Stems that growers throw away.

At the end of each season, tomato growers clear out their greenhouses to prepare for the next crop. This leaves behind tomato stems averaging 10 metres in length, a secondary raw material that growers typically discard.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reports that one-third of all food produced globally is wasted, accounting for 8% of total CO2 emissions, and nearly half of this waste is fruit and vegetables. Packaging is a major problem too, as most produce is wrapped in plastic.

10 m

average length of the tomato stems left behind when growers clear their greenhouses

1/3

of all food produced globally is wasted, according to the FAO

8%

of total CO2 emissions come from that wasted food

Cherry tomatoes on the vine lying on a pile of chopped tomato stems
Chopped tomato stems, the only raw material.
Four glass bowls in a row on a wooden table, each holding tomato stem fibre, from fine powder to coarse chips
Four samples of stem fibre, from fine to coarse.
Top view of a rectangular tray mould lined with strips of baking paper and filled with pressed tomato stem pulp
Stem pulp pressed into a lined tray mould.
A metal sieve holding wet, yellow-green pulp of chopped tomato stems
Stem pulp in a sieve.

Result

Packaging that grows new tomatoes.

Dajz offers a regenerative solution. The packaging is made exclusively from tomato stems. It is compostable and contains tomato seeds, so after use it can be mixed with soil and placed in a pot, where tomato plants will sprout.

The seed-embedded packaging is designed as a seasonal product, available specifically during the tomato-sowing season. The seeds add value to the packaging, which justifies a higher price than existing plastic alternatives.

A tray of cherry tomatoes on the vine and a round container with a tomato, both of pressed stem fibre, on a pile of chopped tomato stems, with a large tomato in the foreground
Dajz packaging.
Top view of a tray of cherry tomatoes with a perforated lid of pressed stem fibre resting across it