Food waste is a massive problem. UK households alone produce 5.8 million tons of avoidable food waste annually, costing the UK £10 billion and resulting in carbon emissions equal to seven million cars a year or 280 liters of water per person per day.
All this home food waste stems from the simple problem of frustrating refrigerator design. It’s hard to see everything. To know what’s on the back of shelves, you have to pull everything in front out, which is very inconvenient. As a result, the items in hard-to-reach zones are forgotten and expire.
Noticing how the user experience hasn’t been adequately addressed, designer Thalis Nicolaou came up with a solution: PRESENTA, a wholly reimagined appliance, specifically designed to help the user reduce food waste. After a thorough evaluation of current models, he identified shelf depth as being the cause of why most food is left to rot.
He then developed a folding, rotating, modular storage system that pulls out to reveal all the contents and makes them accessible without removing any items from the fridge. Each shelf is removable for easy cleaning and height adjustability. At the bottom of the refrigerator, there’s a deep, ide drawer for oversized items. There’s also a color-coded signal that alerts when contents haven’t been checked for over a day.
Fridge maintenance becomes easy and manageable with PRESENTA – as it should be. This innovative design helps the user save money and helps preserve the environment.
Nicolaou is currently finalizing the patent filing process while making a full-size prototype. It will be tested against real-life loads and wear. He will trial different hanging cases and methods to select the best for commercial production. He hopes PRESENTA can help users develop better habits to reduce food waste by making organization and awareness as straightforward as possible.
