Eleonore Eisath has been annoyed by waste in nature since she was a child. Growing up in the unique landscape of the Dolomites in South Tyrol, it was a mystery to her why plastic waste could remain lying around in the mountains for so long. “I started a clean-up campaign in the mountains with friends”, recalls the 32-year-old. Eisath now lives in Munich and heads up the Innovation Lab at Frankfurt design agency Milk as Business Development Manager. Previously, Eleonore Eisath has lived and worked in several countries.
The South Tyrolean completed her bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design in Venice and went on to complete her master’s degree at the Technical University of Munich. While researching her first Master’s project, Eleonore Eisath came across the topic of biotic decomposition. “I was incredibly fascinated by the fact that nature can adapt evolutionarily in such a way that man-made materials can become a source of food”, she says. “Since then, the topic has had me riveted.” Eisath founded the start-up Beworm, which was funded by the federal government, among others. The aim of Beworm, which is now based at TUM as a research project, is to develop the biochemical reprocessing of polyethylene and find microbes, for example fungi or bacteria, that can digest it and take apart.
Worms in Plastic
More than 90 different organisms and microorganisms that can decompose plastic are now known to science. When the larva of the wax moth eats plastics such as polyethylene (PE), its components are broken down by the bacteria and enzymes in the worm’s digestive tract so that they can later be used as a raw material for new products.
This process is known in research as the biotic or enzymatic recycling process. If implemented on an industrial scale, it would close a gap in the material cycle that until recently was considered insurmountable: consumer plastics would become a renewable source of raw materials. “In contrast to other recycling systems such as mechanical or chemical recycling, biotic recycling does not consume much energy”, explains Eleonore Eisath.
However, after three years as a start-up entrepreneur, Eisath had to admit to herself that the project had a promising future but was also a lengthy process. “I approached it naively and underestimated that such projects can take decades to reach market maturity”, says Eisath. At an award ceremony – Beworm won several awards – a speaker told her that without this naivety, she would probably never have dared to embark on such an important research project. The Munich resident by choice, who has lived in Australia and Southeast Asia, therefore, does not regret founding the start-up and is glad that to be told of all current development by the Beworm team. This way, she can continue to inform the public about the approach and promote it.
Design for Recycling
To this day, she always asks herself whether what she does is ecological or not, she explains. After working for the company “Everwave” in the meantime and collecting waste from rivers, she is even more convinced that consumers, politicians, and industry need to pull together. “I think that if you work within the system to ensure that fewer convenience products and fewer materials are used and explain to people that you can also earn money with sustainable approaches, then you can make a difference.” Design for recycling is the key to environmentally friendly products in the packaging industry. In her current role as Head of the Innovation Lab at the Milk agency, she is able to promote this approach for well-known clients from the food industry. Not least the PPWR, which she believes is important, has prompted many brand owners to completely rethink and redesign their products and especially their packaging.
However, there are no one-size-fits-all answers as to which product or packaging is environmentally friendly. “If someone says you have to switch all existing packaging to paper, I’m suspicious of them.” Eisath is direct, self-confident and stubbornly sticks to her goals. In Germany, in her experience, women are more reticent than in her home country of Italy, for example. This could be one reason why the plastics industry in particular is still male dominated. There are more and more women at the top of the packaging industry, but there are still too few female role models. “That’s why I’m happy to be back in the role of designer”, says Eisath about her next steps.
