Making packaging from rice: Somchana Kangwarnjit of Prompt Design
Somchana Kangwarnjit is a Thai designer and the founder of Prompt Design. The Bangkok studio, whose clients include Nestlé, Pfizer and L’Oréal, has created packaging for rice using waste left over from its production process.
The packaging has a natural beige colour and was made to reflect organic rice growing processes. The containers are made from rice chaffs, or cases, which are removed during husking, and then die-formed and finished with a burnt stamp and screen printing.
Before launching Prompt Design, Kangwarnjit studied industrial design at King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL) in Bangkok. In this interview, he talks with Bridget Cogley about the future of waste and how we can use materials better.
BC: Some people think sustainability isn’t the right word, because it’s so vague and used for almost everything. What do you think about this?
SK: This is a very good question. In my opinion, the word sustainability seems quite far from our everyday living. My suggestion to help people better understand what is going on by pointing out the damage, especially in the long term if we continue to not care for the environment. The term “ENDvironment” may be appropriate because, without sustainable design concepts, our environment will come to an end.
“I recommend setting up a Global Green Material Library to determine standards of eco-friendly materials.”
BC: How would you describe the process for your rice packaging to your grandma?
SK: It’s very simple. The material is used twice. First, the rice’s chaff (a natural protective case) is removed in the husking process for the raw rice to become grain. But instead of throwing it away, this waste is given a new life and is compacted into the package box for the rice grains.
BC: What’s the one major thing you think needs to happen right now to further efforts in sustainable design?
SK: Packaging terms like “eco-friendly packaging” and “sustainable packaging” usually are for marketing purposes. In fact, after the package is being discarded as waste, it will go through the separation of materials for further recycling if possible. Not all materials are able to go into recycling, for example plastic and laminated foil can not be recycled, so it has to become waste, unfortunately.
In my opinion, I would recommend setting up a “Global Green Material Library” to determine standards of eco-friendly materials in order to help designers in selecting, specifying and developing their works.
BC: The cost of something is most often on people’s minds before impact. What are some ideas to get more people thinking about sustainability?
SK: To me, this question reflects both the manufacturers’ and consumers’ point of views. My idea is to have support from the government, or big brands in the market, to enable large investment and/or mass production of sustainable, eco-friendly materials.
BC: What’s the one most promising technology or development you think the industry should adopt more broadly?
SK: Most packaging will eventually turn into garbage. There should be a development for closed-loop logistics for packaging, such as household garbage collecting and returning back to manufacturers, to prevent them from going to landfills and destroying the environment.
