BoeteBurger Project
We create waste by the act of being alive, just as every organism does. On our journey towards a more sustainable future it is therefore not only important to look at how we can avoid waste, but also in what we do with our existing trash.
Studio MARC envisions a future where we have created a collaboration with nature that is built on the garbage that we have created, thereby making a cycle where waste is never wasteful.
Type: research, food design, speculative future
Products: installation, BoeteBurger, workshop, styrofoam sculpture
Partners: House of Design, Laif and Nuver
The BoeteBurger Project uses Styrofoam-eating mealworms to turn trash into a treat. Mealworms are first fed a diet of polystyrene packaging material collected from waste flows of, for example, interior shops. In time they will consume all the material, turn it into energy upon which they can grow. When they are satiated they are collected, euthanized, ground up and baked into a patty. And finally, a delicious burger is prepared and served ready for sinful consumers. Eat your own waste with the BoeteBurger!
Mealworms have the amazing ability to eat and digest polystyrene plastic and turn it into harmless organic waste. The plastic is broken down on a chemical level by enzymes, so there are not even microplastics.
At this time further research is being done to test the process of plastic eating mealworms as a food product.
A small batch of mealworms feasting on polystyrene for a period of 2 weeks.
In the running up for the first exhibition of the BoeteBurger I gauged the opinion of the public with social media. These gave interesting things to think about and the results were presented during the exhibition to promote further discussion.
For example, people often say that they can’t go without meat, but when given the choice between bug meat or no meat at all, apparently people would rather choose a vegetarian diet. The price of bug meat was often given as an argument.
Mealworms are actually caterpillars, not worms and only the first shape they take in their journey throughout life.