Citra, The Bio Leather

What it does

‘Citra’ was created to solve the fruit waste problem from food production. Citra's concept is to use citrus peels waste as bio leather for skincare essential kit packaging. Citra the bio leather material was tested to biodegrade easily.

Your inspiration

Sustainability in product packaging has been a concern for me for as long as I know it. Learning that plastics take hundreds of years to degrade made me realize someone needed to do something about it. Instead of waiting, I decided to take on this problem to create a more sustainable packing for beauty products. I used to buy many beauty products stored in plastic packaging. I realized when disposing of it, the packaging does not degrade. So, what would buyers want that is sustainable, multi-purposed, and aesthetically pleasing? That is the moment that led to the creation of CBL.

How it works

The material design has natural aesthetic textures and colors, it can be used for many purposes. Instead, I design a skincare packaging set by using the material. The design of the packaging is very similar to a big-sized wallet. It has a few compartments to store beauty products and buttons with thread to secure the bag.

Design process

There were two design processes: the material design and the packaging design. Firstly, the main material for Citra is citrus peels waste. The citrus peels were collected from restaurants that disposed of the citrus peels as waste. The fruit leather method was used to create this material with organic binders. To preserve the leather longer, I applied bee wax on the leather to prevent fungus. Due to MCO, I could not test it in the lab, and I lacked the machine and tools to execute it. During the designing process, the skincare packaging was made by using leather. The skincare packaging was inspired by the idea of packing that is handy and simple with an elegant design. Natural adhesives were used to assemble the product and a handcrafted button was added to make it stand out.

How it is different

What makes the design unique is that it is made from waste citrus peels. Most beauty product packaging does not look aesthetically pleasing and sustainable. This is a unique alternative that can attract attention and good for the environment.

Future plans

I really hope that I can work on this new vegan material to be promoted in Malaysia. I hope I could spend more time finding suitable ingredients to enhance the quality of this material in the future

Awards