LEAF TO MATTER

By Tinatin Egiashvili

LEAF TO MATTER explores how urban plant waste can be transformed into sustainable material resources.

In cities like New York, seasonal blooms and leaf fall produce large amounts of organic debris that often clog drainage systems and are treated simply as waste. By collecting fallen leaves and plant residues from the urban environment, this project investigates their potential as biodegradable composite materials. Through hands-on material experimentation using natural binders, the waste is transformed into reusable biodegradable repotting cups for plants.

Designed to eventually return to the soil, the cups support sustainable gardening while proposing a biocentric design approach, one that works with nature’s cycles and reimagines seasonal urban waste as a regenerative material system.