The Carlo Ratti Associati studio has created a giant juicer that can contain 1500 oranges: it squeezes them in a few seconds and transforms the skins into bioplastic.
Squeezing oranges has never been so epic! The studio of designers Carlo Ratti Associati (CRA) has designed and built a colossal juicer. “Feel The Peel” – this is the name of the project, developed in partnership with ENI – is a circular structure 3.10 meters high surmounted by a dome that can be filled with 1500 oranges. When the device is activated, the fruit slips into the juicer through a channel: the juice ends up directly in the customer’s glass while the peels are accumulated in a separate container. And this is where the “magic” happens. The designers have in fact developed a system that allows the waste to be recycled into bioplastic. The skins and seeds are dried, ground and transformed into a biodegradable polymer. Once heated and melted, the polymer becomes a filament that a 3D printer (incorporated in the juicer) uses to print disposable cups to drink freshly squeezed orange juice. “Feel The Peel” was developed by the same team of designers who – last year – obtained an important recognition from the Times thanks to Scribit, the “robot-artist” who brings art on the walls of the house (WATCH THE VIDEO).
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“Feel The Peel”: the 3 meters high juicer that recycles the peels
The project “Feel The Peel” is inspired by the principles of circular economy and aims to reduce pollution and waste. “The principle of circularity can be an inspiration for the objects of tomorrow’s everyday life,” says Carlo Ratti, founding member of the CRA and director of the Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Working with Eni, we played around a machine that helps us understand how oranges can be used far beyond their juice. In the next iterations of these projects, we could add new functions, such as printing fabrics for apparel”. After debuting at the 40th Rimini Friendship Meeting, the Circular Juice Bar will also be installed at the Singularity University Summit in Milan on October 8 and 9, and at Ecomondo Rimini in November, Europe’s leading event for the circular economy sector.
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