Not just a snack: popcorn debuts as a material for toys and furniture

University of Goettingen’s Knowledge Museum opened its doors to the public on June 4, 2022, where some prototypes of products made from popcorn granulate will be showcased among other things. 

Forest scientists at the University of Gottingen have been looking into using popcorn granulate produced in a sustainable and efficient manner. Popcorn granulate can be used as an ingredient in many products – ”from packaging to insulating panels for building insulation,” as a news release explains.

The university was able to arrange a licence partnership with GreenTec GmbH, part of the Loick Group, a company that intends to use this technology in the future to construct furniture, toys, sports and fitness equipment, as well as children’s car seats and headrests.

Loick has been producing sustainable toys made from corn and marketed under the PlayMais(R) brand name for more than 20 years. These toys can be “shaped, pressed, cut and much more,” the news release notes. Made using a technique called high-pressure foaming, the corn-based toys are 100 percent biodegradable.

The licence from the University of Goettingen will allow Loick to widen its offerings in the future “to include larger compression-moulded popcorn-based items for arts and crafts.”

Loick’s production will not be limited to arts and crafts, however; the company intends to produce items for automobile interiors (child car seats and headrests), as well as sports and fitness equipment, and furniture such as table-tops and seating all manufactured using popcorn. To achieve this, popcorn granulate will be “produced and offered as sheet material or as three-dimensional moulded parts.”

"This new process, which is based on techniques used in the plastics industry, can now be used as a cost-effective way to produce new sustainable children's toys or sports and fitness equipment, as well as furniture on an industrial scale," explains Professor Alireza Kharazipour, Head of the Research Group Chemistry & Process Engineering of Composite at Goettingen University.

"For the furniture sector especially, this can ensure that alternative natural materials beyond plastic, and even beyond chipboard and fibreboard, are no longer just niche products."

Hubert Loick, Managing Director of the licence partner Loick GreenTec GmbH, adds: "We are delighted to be working with the University of Goettingen to launch new products in the play and leisure sector and in innovative furniture construction with these newly developed popcorn-moulding processes."