Al Madda

Al Madda is a bilingual (Arabic-English) biodegradable materials library in the form of an App and Website that currently features recipes of how to Upcycle three types of waste into new materials: Watermelon Peels, Banana Peels and Tomato Peels, all of which were chosen because of their prominent existence in Egypt (the initial location of the project’s initiation. Under each type of waste there are 3 sections: “Context to Egypt” (which can now be expanded to the region), “Materials Library” (illustrated recipes (some have videos as well) and “Molds Library” (which shares the process of creating shapes using the materials through Diagrams).

The initial objective was to create proposals out of food waste to create new materials to replace plastic packaging for food. However, it evolved into a Do-It-Yourself open-source material archive where people could start to experiment with these materials from home, know the simplicity of the process and further pressurize industries to move towards more sustainable solutions “because now the people know”.

Having been part of the MENA Grad Show, I was exposed to all kinds of people, including children and teenagers, which was eye-opening to a new direction for the project. I’ve had professors and teachers who were interested in workshops for their students, and little kids seemed to be intrigued by the video recipes and colorfulness of the project.

This made me open a new potential way for the project, and it is to potentially focus my target audience on schools and families, who could start working together on these materials, experimenting, learning about the potential of waste to replace one use or short-term items etc.

This project aims to educate on the simplicity of up-cycling a daily wasted resource, “food waste” to useful materials that would potentially be adopted by industries to move away from plastic Packaging. The prototype is fully functional and is ready to be launched.