BE OPEN BLOG

Rice feeds half the world’s population, but few of us think about what happens to its leftovers. Every harvest season, tons of rice husks and straw are discarded or burned, contributing to pollution and waste. Yet a new generation of designers is reimagining these by-products as raw materials for innovation.

For book lovers, a good reading chair can feel as essential as the story itself. Designer You-Hau Wu adds another layer to that comfort quest by introducing a rice-inspired reading stool crafted from agricultural waste. At first glance, furniture and farming might seem worlds apart, but Wu bridges that gap by turning rice husk — a common by-product of rice milling — into the foundation of his design.

His process involves combining rice husk and carbon, breaking them down, and molding them into a sculptural stool through perfusion molding. The result is an elegant round form that captures what Wu calls a “harmonious emotion” between material and human.

The seat surface, braided from straw with rice husk cushioning underneath, completes the sustainable narrative. While the stool’s minimalist form might not offer the back support of a traditional reading chair, it stands as a poetic piece of eco-design that supports a vision for a greener design future.

If the first project invites us to sit and reflect, this next one tackles something more immediate—our daily waste habits. The design collective of Ze-Qi Wang, Qing-Yun Qian, Fang-Yuan Wan, and Dan-Dan Zhu created The Third Size, a concept that reuses rice straw to make both tissue paper and its packaging.

Rice straw, typically burned or discarded after harvest, offers an untapped opportunity. The Third Size makes clever use of this byproduct, turning it into biodegradable tissue boxes that can be refilled, reused, and eventually composted.

The multi-size openings on the box are not only practical but also subtly playful, letting users pull out tissues of varying sizes for different needs, from sneezes to spills.

From home essentials to playtime fun, rice waste continues to inspire innovation. Designer Subin Cho’s Rice Husk Village transforms discarded rice husks into an imaginative toy set that’s as eco-conscious as it is entertaining. The game consists of modular building blocks molded from rice husks, which children can use to create miniature villages, cities, and bridges, all atop a balancing tray that turns construction into a playful challenge.

Beyond its engaging gameplay, Rice Husk Village highlights the environmental issue of rice husk waste. Each year, around 120 million tons of rice husks are thrown away, a material that’s surprisingly resistant to natural decomposition. Cho’s concept gives these husks a new life as biodegradable, safe, and compostable toy modules that return to the earth after use.

What makes the project brilliant is its ability to teach through play. As children stack, balance, and build their tiny communities, they’re also learning the value of sustainability. Once the toys have lived their life, they can be literally buried back into the soil closing the loop on waste in the most poetic way possible.