Plate made of leaves – Video of the day

This is Pedram Zolgadri and Carolin Fiechter, and they created leaf republic, a company that creates fully recyclable plates out of plant leaves.
They started out with a vision to create outdoor tableware that’s as renewable and biodegradable as a leaf falling from a tree.
A few years ago, they started out in their living room testing the idea by taking leaves and pressing them together with a foot-powered stamping machine.
Once they came up with the process and idea for the design, they worked together with a team of people to bring it to life.
The next step was to create the molds for the plates using CAD (computer assisted design) and CNC machines. By creating molds that would go on a larger pressing machine, they would then be able to easily compress the leaves together, creating the plate designs.
Once the designs were finalized, it was then time to start making the plates and testing them.
Each plate is made from a group of leaves that are sewn together using fibers from palm leaves.
The plates are made by compressing three layers together, a bottom layer of leaves, a middle layer of paper made from leaves, and then a top layer of leaves.
Once pressed, the leaves (and the paper), are then made into the shape of a plate.
The end result is a plate that takes just 28 days to decompose.
And if you’re worried about whatever you’re serving on them leaking onto your hands, you don’t need to be, as they’re also waterproof.