Kopi Bags
“An Organic, Biodegradable, Reusable alternative to plastic bags”
Made using Cascara
What is a Kopi Bag
Kopi Bag is a bag that is made using Coffee leather. It is used as an sustainable alternative to plastic bags. It helps reduce the pollution that is caused by non-biodegradable plastic bags, as kopi bags are biodegradable. An added bonus is that kopi bags are made using coffee by-products. This help reduce the waste produced by the coffee industry.
Design Process
Idea
Replace the use of plastic bags with kopi bags made using kopi fabric.
Problem
There is an average of 300 million tonnes of plastic produced annually, of which 50% are single use plastic.
91 % of the plastic produced isn’t recycled.
26.8 million tonnes of plastic end up in landfills.
An average plastic bag is used for a minimum of 12- 15 minutes ,before being disposed of.
An average plastic bag takes 10 - 20 years to decompose. Plastic bags under 50 microns are the number one cause for microplastics.
REdesigning a Plastic BAg
While redesigning a plastic bag you look at four things Strength, Storage, Structure and Design
Structure and Design - There isn’t any problem with regular plastic bags in terms of its structure and design, as it serves its purpose and helps carry the baggage.
Strength - An average plastic bag can hold 7kgs. So i had to make sure the material and bag could hold a minimum of 7 kgs or more. Currently the kopi fabric can hold 12 kgs +
Storage - Plastic bags are stored extremely flat in stores as this helps them store more bags. So while designing a bag, this had to be taken into consideration.
Design Inspiration - Pleating and Bellows
Materials tends to be stronger when pleated as they have multiple pressure points. Bellows when stored are flat ,but expand when used
Maquettes
Choosing the right handle
To redesign a bag, you start by looking at the handle. Handles of the bag are correlated to the weight the bag is meant to carry. So for the bag I needed to find which handle was the strongest, by running experiments.
Type A - Is mostly used to carry lightweight objects like cloth and books. The plastic bags that have this kind of handle generally tend to be thin.
Type B - Is the strongest and is used in most plastic bags.
Type C - Is mostly used for cloth bags.
DETAILED VIEW
Kopi bag Design
Kopi bags are designed, such that the bag can be flattened for easy storage.
Kopi Bags also have pleats that allow it to expand, in order to store more.
How are Kopi bags better than cloth and plastic bags?
Kopi bags
They use waste materials
Creates zero waste and leaves no carbon footprint
They are compostable
Plastic bags
They are non biodegradable
They take 10-20 years to breakdown to microplastics.
They use up virgin raw materials
Create a lot of pollution
Cloth Bags.
They are biodegradable
They use up virgin raw materials
Add to the pollution caused by fast fashion