To make the electronic device more eco-friendly, a design studio Aivan has created new ‘Korvaa’ headphones, made from bioplastics and microbe derivatives as compared to the normal plastic and leather.
The idea was to replace everything on the headphones with naturally-derived materials. The headphones feature a headband that is 3D-printed with bioplastic made from yeast-produced lactic acid.
The padding around the ear is made of Hydrophobin, a foaming protein produced by fungus, and plant cellulose. The imitation leather is fungus too, whereas the mesh over the speakers is biosynthetic spider silk produced by microbes. The outer foam is a mycelium-cellulose composite too.
At the time being, the Korvaa headphones are still a prototype. The idea for creating the headphones was to show that headphones can be made up of biodegradable materials too and can be more eco-friendly.
“This was certainly only a surface scratch into where biology-engineered materials are going, and what we can do with them in the future,” one of the group’s designers, Thomas Tallqvist.