While many architects, designers, and scientists are looking for new and novel ways to recycle plastic waste, a student at Central Saint Martins is proposing a rather outlandish but sound procedure. Eleonora Ortolani, a graduate student in the Material Futures program “has created what she believes to be the first food made from plastic waste.”

The title of this ambitious project is ‘Guilty Flavours’ and it sees Eleonora Ortolani breaking down small amounts of plastic to create a synthetic version of a common food ingredient, vanillin, which is then used to make ice cream. This project emerges as the designer doubts current methods used to recycle plastic waste, particularly when recycled plastic is used to create products that cannot be further recycled.

Image Credit: Eleonora Ortolani