Fat is something we always want to eliminate. It seems that no matter the context, we’re always battling against it. It’s a constantly stigmatised substance. Whether related to the arteries of our bodies or the sewers beneath our streets, its image is dirty and dangerous. It blocks whatever it comes into contact with.
It’s precisely this image we want to change. We see fat and waste oil as a gateway, connecting past, present and future with sustainable economies and environmental policy. In fact, they’re a key to unlocking futures that can diverge from our current ones of climate breakdown and instability. Fat is pure energy waiting to be unlocked.
We’re not only investigating fat’s future role in society but its cultural significance too. To do this, we need to change the way we, as a society, see and talk about it. The whole project started during a design residency at the Design Museum London. By making an alternative map of the city through the eyes of waste fats, we created a taxonomy of material samples for 144 different restaurants across the city—each cuisine represented by a new ‘fat’ biomaterial made from its respective waste stream. The result was a multicultural material map of colours and textures dictated by its waste fat source. This mapping is akin to the Subjective Atlas technique that celebrates London’s multiculturalism through new and surprising material narratives.
Thinking about this, we drew an interesting and revealing historical parallel with night soil workers. What sounds like a lovely profession turns out to be far from it. Night soil is, in fact, raw human waste, and night soil workers were the people unlucky enough to be dealing with it. We can achieve a radical shift in perception by thinking about the language surrounding the profession. The public currently characterises fat in our cities as filthy and stinky, not something crafted and artisanal.
But if we collect fat and waste oil at its source and process it before it reaches places where it causes problems, we can start to shift the narrative. This is why, when imagining new futures for fat, we humanise it by referring to craft and energy artisans. By speculating on a future where energy artisans work with fat as a material, we’re introducing language to soften and reposition fat as a substance noble enough to be crafted instead of maligned.
One vision for the project was to replace any need for plastic packaging or protective materials within each of London’s regions using glycerol. This natural fatty acid byproduct is created when waste fats and oils are converted into biofuel. We imagined that craftspeople in each area, borough or neighbourhood could make their own idiosyncratic and distinctive eco-friendly materials and objects. A process like this could also fit perfectly into local circular economy initiatives.
We quickly noticed the integral role biofuels play in the future of waste fat since it’s currently the only industrial use for it. However, the ongoing shift towards electrical and other technologically advanced energy-driven initiatives has introduced significant uncertainty for the biofuel industry. The industry now faces the challenge of adapting to evolving policies, environmental changes, and mandates such as the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO). Despite ongoing efforts to adapt, a crucial question remains unanswered: What lies ahead for the future of biofuel? As this future becomes increasingly uncertain, it raises other vital questions that this project aims to address: What will be the future of fat? How can our previous work with energy artisans help the biofuel diversify its futures?
Fat isn’t going anywhere. That’s why we’re challenging its current myths and realities to unclog the futures waiting to be born. The new culture of fat is already here.