Neighborhood bread beer crafted with surplus bread
The right beer to make the difference
by @ibridabirra
Can a beer be zero waste? 🍺
On the occasion of our “Zero Waste Summer” week, the TA-DAAN team has decided to share with you the story of IBRIDA, a beer brand born from the creative idea of 4 young students of “Politecnico di Milano” design school.
We have had the pleasure to interview Francesca De Barardinis, a designer and one of the co-founders of Ibrida.
This is not an ordinary beer, read on to discover why! 🤔
Hello Francesca, can you tell us about IBRIDA? Why can we call it a zero-waste beer?
IBRIDA is an artisanal beer, but with a value-added feature. Indeed, what makes it so special and different from the others is that it is crafted from the surplus bread unsold by many bakeries in Milan.
Our team is committed to a mission to reduce food waste, indeed “Ibrida Zero waste” means re-using resources that would otherwise be thrown away, and use them as raw material to produce a different product. We are able to replace the 30% of malt with dried bread, promote short supply chains, re-invigorate the growing areas of the city and re-imagine new opportunities for local businesses.
How did you come up with this idea?
This adventure started at the end of 2018, on the occasion of the final synthesis studio of the master’s degree in Product Service System Design at “Politecnico di Milano”. The main goal of this course was building a startup centered on sustainability, core theme of the project. Therefore, my team and I had the idea to bring together these elements into a little bottle of beer.
Can you share with us some numbers about the food waste? (bread waste, in particular)
When we started to do some research at the beginning of the project, we discovered that every year about 19% of the food waste in Italy concerns bread, in each of the 500 bakeries in Milan around 7 kg bread is wasted.
In that moment we realized that we strongly wanted to make the difference, although we never imagined that our project would turn into a real beer brand and that we would become entrepreneurs!
Where can people taste IBRIDA?
To make it work, IBRIDA cannot act alone. This is why we are continuing to develop a network of bakeries, cafes, bars, community hubs, event organisers, & other companies that joined the project.
As of today, we collaborate with realities located in Milan, Como, Novara, Porto San Giorgio and Napoli and… who knows about tomorrow! See where you can find IBRIDA beer!
We hope to keep involving new ones that want to make something good for their neighbourhood and business and spread our zero waste vision.
Is there something you want to add or a message you want to share?
It is pointless to talk about sustainability exclusively to sell the product. Our action wants to be meaningful and we want to honour the original aim of the project. This is why it is of fundamental importance to share the story, the goals and values behind the idea and make sure people spontaneously join.
After that, focus on action and make it happen!
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