Kombucha leather – packaging from the tea lab

Feyza İrem Çavuş, Zeynep Merve Mutlu and Zender Boutheina are three young visionaries who want to make the world a little bit better. Since the beginning of 2023, they have formed a dedicated team with a background in industrial design, bioengineering and industrial engineering. “We want to develop ways to tackle the growing problem of food waste in future”, they say. According to their expertise, the SCOBY biofilm in the form of kombucha leather is a double solution for two worldwide problems at once. It all started as a project by the SAVE FOOD initiative in cooperation with the Bahçeşehir University (BAU) in Istanbul. Their project, which was already presented at interpack 2023, is called Packoby.

SCOBY is short for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. The biofilm is generated during the fermentation process of kombucha tea. It takes up to six weeks until the team holds the finished product in their hands. The process starts with the manufacture of a nutritional solution which receives a starting culture of kombucha to supply necessary bacteria and yeasts. Oranges serve as a natural source of sugars. Depending on where in the world the production site is, waste from sugar cane harvests or from fruit like apples or mangos can be used as well. This means there is the opportunity to support local farming in the event of a larger production scale in future.

Microorganisms ferment the sugar contained in the tea, yeasts convert the sugar to alcohol and CO2 and in turn, bacteria convert the alcohol to acetic acid. Slowly, a slimy layer of cellulose accumulates which grows into a thick, leather-like biofilm over the course of the process. By adding natural colouring agents and pigments from plants, fruit and vegetables – for example beetroot for red and turmeric for yellow – the material is given the desired hue. Once the desired thickness is reached, the SCOBY biofilm is removed from the liquid. Regular checks of the process are important to avoid contamination or mould. At the end, the SCOBY biofilm is poured into moulds according to the intended design and dried in a controlled environment. The kombucha leather is then ready for further processing steps until it becomes a finished product.

“We are working on prototypes right now and are discussing a lot of ideas for our SCOBY Packoby”, says the ambitious trio. “But we still face a lot of obstacles before we can get real market opportunities.” Currently, the three creative minds are in contact with local companies in order to implement their specific design concepts.

One of the issues for ensuring long-term success is how to design a larger scale production so that it is profitable and effective. Reliable properties like firmness and flexibility as well as the resilience of the SCOBY biofilms also need further improvement in order to compete with conventional plastics.

The advantages of the innovative material are obvious. The cost of the raw material – waste from tea or sugar cane or oranges – is low. Compared to the production of conventional plastics, the biofilm requires significantly less energy. The materials are completely compostable and do not pollute the environment with hazardous residue. The leather-like material can keep food fresh for longer periods of time. Its natural anti-microbial properties also slow the growth of hazardous microorganisms which cause products to spoil.

“There are also exciting fields of application outside the food industry”, the young inventors add. “We have a lot of ideas which we are currently fine-tuning.” Even if they’re not yet spilling any details, the future potential is already foreseeable. Maybe soon, there will be soft cases for glasses, all kinds of bags, lampshades, furniture covers, hats and jackets made of kombucha leather. In this area, too, the material from the tea lab boasts significant eco-friendly advantages compared to leather from animal production. It is biodegradable, needs less water and energy during production, is generated without chemicals and avoids greenhouse gasses as its raw materials are purely plant-based.

The market opportunities for mature products in the field of sustainable packaging are very promising. According to the German Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt), the worldwide production capacity for biobased and biodegradable plastics in 2022 was approximately 2.22 million tonnes. By comparison, during the same year 390 million tonnes of conventional plastics were produced. Expectations are that by 2029, the market for biodegradable packaging will grow from 105.26 billion US dollars in 2024 to 140.66 billion US dollars, with an annual growth rate of 5.97% (source: Research Markets)

In spite of all their advantages, new, promising solutions like Packoby made of SCOBY biofilm do not have it easy. In the end, it comes down to convincing both active business players and consumers of the benefits inherent in new materials.

There is a need for companies which think several years ahead with regard to a sustainable economy, who are ready to make investments and develop standardised production processes. The research and development of safety and environmental standards are also important topics which can only be addressed by working together with strong partners. In the case of kombucha leather, companies must implement circular economy models to systematically collect waste, like for example leftover tea and orange rinds, and to start training employees to manage fermentation processes.

Consumers, too, need information to be motivated to consume more ethically. Therefore, innovative marketing approaches are necessary as well. In competition with established suppliers, pioneering approaches like packaging or product design utilising kombucha biofilm need campaigns for clear differentiation. All this costs money. On their own, start-ups – no matter how ambitious they prove to be – cannot solve these tasks.

The trio is optimistic about the future in spite of many open questions and has entered into talks with several local companies who are interested in sustainable product design. “In sectors like consumer goods, fashion and even industrial applications, there is a large potential for environmentally friendly materials. Packoby is more than just a product”, such is the conviction of the young team from Istanbul. “It’s a step towards the sustainable future that all the world needs.” Together, we are stronger than on our own – true to this motto, the creative group is open to establishing new contacts and sharing their experience in specialised networks.