NATURAL MATERIALS AS A BASIS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW PRODUCT

Abstract

         Environmental issues are becoming increasingly important to product designers and manufacturers. This trend is most apparent when considering the environmental impacts of worn-out products. Many different materials are used for product designs including metals, glass, wood, plastics or combinations of more than one material as the composites. The disposal of waste materials is particularly significant in view of the recent focus towards waste management as the important environmental aspects of present-day society.
Natural materials have been incorporating in many new products for years. The solution of using natural materials could be an alternative approach to increase the value of products. Under this circumstance, the objective of this research is to utilize natural waste materials as a design basis of a coral restoration bases. Product prototype is developed to test whether it works as expected. The result found that the mixture of materials used in the production of Coral restoration bases has pH of 8, which is close to the pH of seawater and fits well with the structure of the coral.