Each year, 5.9 million tonnes of tea is consumed worldwide. However, this large consumption of tea also leads to large amounts of tea waste. Approximately 90% of steeped tea is being thrown away. This waste leads to problems such as environmental pollution. In order to combat this issue, Tea Clay was previously developed as a material made from wasted tea leaves. However, this material was not suitable for large scale implementation.

This project aims to explore the material-based opportunities for Tea Clay to be implemented on a larger scale.
The Tea Clay has an envisioned implementation as a memory board game based on tactile and olfactory senses for visually and non-visually impaired people. The Material Driven Design method is used for developing the material further to fit this vision. Benchmarking has inspired the material to have a reprocessing step: creating bulk material that can later be reprocessed into the intended product. Through tinkering, a new material with added gelatine and water was created which can reshape the material once it has been steamed. The reprocessability of the material could benefit the availability of the material for product implementation. Material can be created at one place and sold to customers, who in turn steam the material and reshape it in different products. The reprocessability also facilitates recyclability at the product end of life.

Bending tests and hardness tests have shown that it has a similar Young’s modulus and hardness as that of polypropylene and polyethylene, resulting in a material that is suitable for the substitution of conventional plastics. Experiential characterisation tests have proven that users are willing to interact with a novel material with appropriate background information. Knowing the material composition can stimulate them to be more accepting and embracing towards the material. Scent implementation is important for the intended product, as the scent should not disappear over time. A user test was conducted to test the scent duration and strength. Coating the material with essential oil has proven to keep the scent over a period of 4 weeks without much disappearance. The results of the material exploration both technically and experientially have come together in the design of a board game for visually and non-visually impaired people. This design aims at enhancing social interaction between visually and non-visually impaired through a game where everyone has a sense of collaboration and autonomy during game play and setup.

Overall, this study has demonstrated the potential of Tea Clay to be used as a waste composite material for product development. Future studies are still needed to further analyse the material properties of Tea Clay, and to validate its application in design for visually impaired people.