Honorable Mention

Brushcob is a set of three scrub brushes for the skincare made with a biomaterial of our ideation based on corn cob, a massively produced industrial waste. This exact waste was chosen because of its properties, which guarantee the performances of the product.

All of the brushes have been designed following the hand ergonomics. The abrasive nature of the cob is used to exfoliate the skin and, thanks to the glycerin and the potato starch present in the recipe, the skin remains soft and smooth after the usage. For this reason, no other cosmetic product is required. Dipping the product in the water is enough to activate the softening capability of the material. The three brushes differ not only in shape and size, but also in the concentration and granulometries of the corncob particles, to be efficient in parts of the body with different characteristics.

The set is composed by a product for the face, one for the body and one for the feet or, in general, where there is the need for a stronger action. The the face Brushcob and the one for the feet share the same shape: they differ in the granulometry type of the corn cob, which is finer in the one for the face and rougher in the one for the feet. The Brushcob for the body is made with a fine granulometry and a bigger shape, that helps covering bigger areas. After each use, the products can be left to dry in the air, like soap bars, remaining effective for many usages. When they lose their efficiency, the brushes can be safely disposed in the organic waste.

The problems which made us develop this solution are coming from two different fields: the agri-food industry and the cosmetic industries. Both of them are highly polluting and generate significant amounts of waste, but in different ways: while the first one produces products that will be only partially consumed, wasting a lot of materials and natural and human resources in vain during the processes, the other one creates goods that often contain microplastics, dangerous for the environment and the organisms. Our product attempts to reduce the negative environmental impact of both the contexts, substituting the ordinary kind of scrubs and exfoliating tools with a single compostable and bio-based good, made with a waste that would have been otherwise trashed in big quantities.