REolivar, TRANSFORMATIVE PRODUCTS FROM OLIVE PITS

REolivar, TRANSFORMATIVE PRODUCTS FROM OLIVE PITS

REolivar, TRANSFORMATIVE PRODUCTS FROM OLIVE PITS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHcp9yO4-jQ

A project that uses the olive pits as a raw material, an abundant by-product whose current use is reduced to burning for biomass, and for which we have developed a recovery process to transform it into a noble material.
We began by working with small olive stone samples obtained from our own consumption.
Later we went to the olive sector to obtain the waste in bulk with less energy expenditure and took advantage of the olive stone byproduct from the milling process to extract oil. There we realized that those olive pits were actually a problem because they did not know what to do with so much waste, and this gave us even more reasons to work on developing a new solution also for the olive industry.
We apply maker culture principles combined in parallel with material research, design and prototyping to validate its use.
We imagine REolivar as a standard that can be applied in various sectors interested in the properties of the material as furniture, architecture, interior&product design, toys, or packaging.
Reolivar has participated in numerous exhibitions and has recently won the S.T.A.R.T's prize from ARS electronics together with Remix el Barrio.

A project that uses the olive pits as a raw material, an abundant by-product whose current use is reduced to burning for biomass, and for which we have developed a recovery process to transform it into a noble material.
We began by working with small olive stone samples obtained from our own consumption.
Later we went to the olive sector to obtain the waste in bulk with less energy expenditure and took advantage of the olive stone byproduct from the milling process to extract oil. There we realized that those olive pits were actually a problem because they did not know what to do with so much waste, and this gave us even more reasons to work on developing a new solution also for the olive industry.
We apply maker culture principles combined in parallel with material research, design and prototyping to validate its use.
We imagine REolivar as a standard that can be applied in various sectors interested in the properties of the material as furniture, architecture, interior&product design, toys, or packaging.
Reolivar has participated in numerous exhibitions and has recently won the S.T.A.R.T's prize from ARS electronics together with Remix el Barrio.

WHY DID WE START
Have you ever considered leaving everything and escaping to paradise?
We did it. For 3 years we lived on a small beach in Brazil doing ephemeral architecture projects.
We were temporarily traveling to the big city to produce it and install it at events.
In the weekday afternoons we would swim on the beach with dolphins as the sun set.
But our work generated a conflict for us: all the waste that remained after the events.
One day the beach woke up full of garbage brought in by the sea and we decided to do something about it.

HOW DID WE START
We left our little house and moved to Barcelona looking for knowledge.
We discovered that everything can be transformed into a new material.
Garbage is raw material in the wrong place.
In a training on circular materials we had to choose a residue to work with.
Eating in a bar we looked at the olive pits that were left on the plate and we wonder… could we do something with this?
We started experimenting with them at the lab and creating the first samples that would later become the Reolivar project.

THE OLIVE WASTE PROBLEM
We analyzed the olive sector and its potential as a source of raw material.
Spain is the world's leading olive producer and its industry produces each year 450,000 tons of olive pits that that cannot be managed efficiently.
These pits are mainly used as biomass, which generates CO2 emissions into the atmosphere (1kg of olive pits = 1liter of gasoline), so if we create a new function for this waste we can significantly reduce CO2 emissions.
We also see interest in using olive pits as a new way to obtain wood without the need to cut down trees (we call it Extra Virgin Wood).
Inspired by the idea of finding a solution that helps solve this problem in the olive industry and at the same time reduce the impact on the environment, we decided to continue our research.

OUR SOLUTION
After more than a year of research, we arrived at the definitive formula for Reolivar, a mixture of ground olive stone with other natural ingredients that can be formed into a wide variety of textures and appearances, depending on the amount and type of stone material used – granulate, powder or flour. The material can appear wood-like to transparent and is remarkably malleable. The biocomposite is available in different colors thanks to a dying process using only natural sources such as turmeric, avocado, indigo, and cochineal.

We tested Reolivar and found that it is resistant and machinable like wood and at the same time moldable, a characteristic that allows a greater formal capacity.
Reolivar is 100% compostable in natural conditions and it can be managed circularly, so products made with this material have less impact on their end of life cycle, as it can be reused by melting it to create new objects.

With our creative abilities we began to validate the material by applying it in product design.
We create furniture, decorative objects, lamps, containers and other pieces that demonstrate the possibilities that Reolivar offers as an alternative and truly sustainable material for many sectors.

We presented the material and objects at some events and it aroused a lot of interest.

IMPACT OF THE PROJECT
The market seeks urgently new sustainable solutions to global problems, that’s why since the moment we presented Reolivar the press has been very interested and we began to appear in the media all over the world.
We participate in international exhibitions and this opens up new windows of possibility for us to spread our values.

As members of Remix El Barrio collective we are exploring new practices to stop wasting our time and our resources and act at a local scale to foster more social circular practices. We collaborate and involve local agents from the neighborhood such as restaurants, urban gardens, and neighborhood associations, to promote a local circular economy ecosystem. We affirm the potential of co-design, digital manufacturing, and crafts to reinvent our ways of producing, consuming, and living with awareness of the environmental ecosystem. We claim the need to imagine new models and techniques to innovate with what we commonly call ‘waste’. We value innovative and artistic practices as a motor for social change. We are convinced that living shared design experiences can facilitate the empowerment of territories to implement a circular economy.
In sept 2021 Remix el barrio collective is awarded with the S.T.A.R.T’s Prize for innovative collaboration between industry or technology and the arts that opens new pathways for innovation.

Reolivar is already a reality that soon will be available for the designer community so they can helps us to transform it into beautiful and functional objects produced in collaboration with social labor, thus adding more value to the product and involving the most disadvantaged groups to be part of the change.

We are also interested in strengthening ties of collaboration with citizens to promote circular economy principles and the development of other biomaterials projects through teaching.

In the near future we want to implement a local collaboration strategy in olive production areas that coexist with other sectors such as furniture, in order to create Reolivar production centers, and thus make this new material available for the production of furniture completely circular, sustainable and innovative.

After these years we certainly miss our little paradise and swimming with the dolphins, but we have the satisfaction of doing something for them.

WHY DID WE START
Have you ever considered leaving everything and escaping to paradise?
We did it. For 3 years we lived on a small beach in Brazil doing ephemeral architecture projects.
We were temporarily traveling to the big city to produce it and install it at events.
In the weekday afternoons we would swim on the beach with dolphins as the sun set.
But our work generated a conflict for us: all the waste that remained after the events.
One day the beach woke up full of garbage brought in by the sea and we decided to do something about it.

HOW DID WE START
We left our little house and moved to Barcelona looking for knowledge.
We discovered that everything can be transformed into a new material.
Garbage is raw material in the wrong place.
In a training on circular materials we had to choose a residue to work with.
Eating in a bar we looked at the olive pits that were left on the plate and we wonder… could we do something with this?
We started experimenting with them at the lab and creating the first samples that would later become the Reolivar project.

THE OLIVE WASTE PROBLEM
We analyzed the olive sector and its potential as a source of raw material.
Spain is the world's leading olive producer and its industry produces each year 450,000 tons of olive pits that that cannot be managed efficiently.
These pits are mainly used as biomass, which generates CO2 emissions into the atmosphere (1kg of olive pits = 1liter of gasoline), so if we create a new function for this waste we can significantly reduce CO2 emissions.
We also see interest in using olive pits as a new way to obtain wood without the need to cut down trees (we call it Extra Virgin Wood).
Inspired by the idea of finding a solution that helps solve this problem in the olive industry and at the same time reduce the impact on the environment, we decided to continue our research.

OUR SOLUTION
After more than a year of research, we arrived at the definitive formula for Reolivar, a mixture of ground olive stone with other natural ingredients that can be formed into a wide variety of textures and appearances, depending on the amount and type of stone material used – granulate, powder or flour. The material can appear wood-like to transparent and is remarkably malleable. The biocomposite is available in different colors thanks to a dying process using only natural sources such as turmeric, avocado, indigo, and cochineal.

We tested Reolivar and found that it is resistant and machinable like wood and at the same time moldable, a characteristic that allows a greater formal capacity.
Reolivar is 100% compostable in natural conditions and it can be managed circularly, so products made with this material have less impact on their end of life cycle, as it can be reused by melting it to create new objects.

With our creative abilities we began to validate the material by applying it in product design.
We create furniture, decorative objects, lamps, containers and other pieces that demonstrate the possibilities that Reolivar offers as an alternative and truly sustainable material for many sectors.

We presented the material and objects at some events and it aroused a lot of interest.

IMPACT OF THE PROJECT
The market seeks urgently new sustainable solutions to global problems, that’s why since the moment we presented Reolivar the press has been very interested and we began to appear in the media all over the world.
We participate in international exhibitions and this opens up new windows of possibility for us to spread our values.

As members of Remix El Barrio collective we are exploring new practices to stop wasting our time and our resources and act at a local scale to foster more social circular practices. We collaborate and involve local agents from the neighborhood such as restaurants, urban gardens, and neighborhood associations, to promote a local circular economy ecosystem. We affirm the potential of co-design, digital manufacturing, and crafts to reinvent our ways of producing, consuming, and living with awareness of the environmental ecosystem. We claim the need to imagine new models and techniques to innovate with what we commonly call ‘waste’. We value innovative and artistic practices as a motor for social change. We are convinced that living shared design experiences can facilitate the empowerment of territories to implement a circular economy.
In sept 2021 Remix el barrio collective is awarded with the S.T.A.R.T’s Prize for innovative collaboration between industry or technology and the arts that opens new pathways for innovation.

Reolivar is already a reality that soon will be available for the designer community so they can helps us to transform it into beautiful and functional objects produced in collaboration with social labor, thus adding more value to the product and involving the most disadvantaged groups to be part of the change.

We are also interested in strengthening ties of collaboration with citizens to promote circular economy principles and the development of other biomaterials projects through teaching.

In the near future we want to implement a local collaboration strategy in olive production areas that coexist with other sectors such as furniture, in order to create Reolivar production centers, and thus make this new material available for the production of furniture completely circular, sustainable and innovative.

After these years we certainly miss our little paradise and swimming with the dolphins, but we have the satisfaction of doing something for them.

https://naifactorylab.com