Indonesian Designer Adhi Nugraha Makes Home Accessories From Cow Dung

Indonesian product designer Adhi Nugraha talks about making products from agricultural waste most won’t even think of – cow dung.

One of the most talked-about items during the three-day FIND – Design Fair Asia 2022 is Indonesian product designer Adhi Nugraha’s collection of small items.

Sporting a texture akin to papier mache with a terracotta colour palette, the Dung collection compelled fairgoers to touch, examine, and mostly sniff it, thanks to its composite material’s primary ingredients – cow dung.

Displayed at the Emerge @ FIND showcase, the collection exists at the intersection of waste management and design. It also has a strong industry and marketing potential that delights (and mildly shocks) consumers.

We find out more from the designer, Adhi Nugraha, himself.

What was the driving force behind your dung collection?

Indonesian product designer Adhi Nugraha: The prime impetus was purely environmental issues. I live near a dairy farming village and wake up to the mooing of the cows and the smell of manure every day.

I was deeply concerned and frustrated when I found the agricultural waste was either going to the landfill or being dumped into the river.

How can we solve the agricultural waste – especially cow dung – problem here?

I am a product designer, so I thought, let’s turn it into a raw material for products.

Your Dung collection received so much appreciation at the Design Fair. How has life been since?

Indonesian product designer Adhi Nugraha: I am happy about that, although quite surprised – it was beyond my expectation. Most of the items in the collection are prototypes.

I plan to find potential markets and benefit many people involved in th­is project. But first, we have to make all prototypes ready for production, which requires a lot of work.

We need to train the villagers with the production processes and reproduce enough tools and moulds to make it efficient and economically make sense. And we have to formulate our branding and pricing strategy.

We have to ask: Are your Dung pieces hygienic and safe for use?

Indonesian product designer Adhi Nugraha: We started this research in 2021. This cow dung has undergone many rounds of experimentation and laboratory study.

Thanks to the lengthy cleaning process, I would say that it is a safe and hygienic material.

The next step we need to do is to get the necessary certifications for the material. We will do this before we market the collection, of course.

What are some of the most common questions you get?

Indonesian product designer Adhi Nugraha: The most asked questions are: can one still smell cow dung? How to get rid of the smell?

The answers are: once the material has been processed, one can still smell the mild earthiness – I would say 5 per cent of the initial smell.

But we don’t use this semi-raw material for the products themselves.

We mix it with other waste materials, like coffee ground and cigarette butts, which neutralise the smell. You can even smell coffee. Clove leaves work well, too, for the mixture.

What is your dream for the cow dung material in the future?

Indonesian product designer Adhi Nugraha: It’s my dream for this material to be widely available and commonly used as an alternative material for products, and thus, reduce the environmental problem, especially in agriculture and farming areas.

I hope one day, all the techniques, tools, and how-tos for processing cow dung will be familiar to many people, especially dairy farmers, so they can develop products independently based on their own needs, culture, and preferences.

Then we will no longer have so many environmental problems caused by cow dung.