The stuff the future is made of

The book on the material turnaround

The future belongs to the bioeconomy: The change away from everything fossil and towards a society that manages with renewable raw materials will be one of the great transformation processes of the 21st century.

Since time immemorial, mankind has used biological resources to make houses, clothes or everyday objects. Until about 150 years ago, when we began to extract fossil carbon from the depths of the earth - coal, oil and gas were simply too tempting and became the basic materials of our civilisation. Now we have reached a point where the hot affair with black gold has turned into a "toxic relationship" and our planet is heating up more and more. It is high time, therefore, that we turn again to renewable carbon from renewable sources on the earth's surface in order to make our world more sustainable and climate-friendly.

Markus Petruch and Dominik Walcher prove in this book that this change is possible and that a biobased future can already begin today. They describe the great diversity of renewable raw materials from plants, fungi, algae, bacteria and residual materials and explain what the material turnaround could look like. Whether reinterpretations of old knowledge or high-tech innovations - the 101 products, materials and ideas presented ingeniously show that bio-based, recyclable and climate-friendly solutions are either already available today or within reach.

* Packaging made from fish waste

* Underwear made from wood

* Furniture from popcorn

* Sneakers made of bacterial silk

* Socks made from recycled CO2

* and much more.