SCOBY is an alternative to plastic packagings.

It was developed by a Polish designer Róża Rutkowska (Róża Janusz) as a "a new generation of materials and resources to replace fossil-fuels in packaging, textiles, and more."

It is farmed rather than produced in the process of fermentation with bacteria and yeast. The fermentation process is fed with agricultural waste, for example leftovers from fruit juice production. In the process of farming a layer of organic material if formed on the surface of the container with aricultural waste and scoby.

SCOBY was Róża's graduation work at ŁÓDŹ School of Form and she has now turned it into a start-up called makegrowlab.

Róża is a designer but she cooperated with biologists and chemists to not only develop SCOBY but also change our perception of how we produce things into more circular and based on biological processes.

We are still hoping to invite Róża to our school as the meeting we were planning for May was hindered by covid lockdown.