HOW (household organic waste), a participatory material

Everybody produces HOW. This design-science study proposes a form of engagement with it that motivates sustainable behaviour. HOW is proposed to be bioconverted into a renewable participatory material. People would obtain and use this material on their own, in their neighbourhoods. To create this material, HOW needs to undergo controlled bioprocesses just as much as it needs a new meaning in our minds. Is this participatory HOW material possible? Laboratory experiments and a survey try to answer this question. While the survey gathers data on what HOW looks like in people's bins, the experiments assess the possibility of adapting biotechnological HOW treatments to everyday life. The results of this study offer insight on what a participatory HOW material could be like.