Icelandic designer creates meat packaging from animal hides

In Iceland, designer Valdís Steinarsdóttir will introduce her latest piece—a plastic-like material to package meat made from that individual animal’s hide—at the upcoming DesignMarch competition.

“The idea started when I was studying at the Icelandic Academy of The Arts in the product design department,” where she looked at the waste produced by the horsemeat industry, Steinarsdóttir tells the Reykjavik Grapevine. “I thought it was kind of poetic. I thought meat wrapping would suit it.”

Dubbed Bioplastic Skin, the work is meant to encourage consumers to consider society’s wastefulness. The material is produced by extracting collagen by boiling the hides.