New “plastic” growing on a farm – Serbian startup Sferikon finds solution to industrial waste in processed corn (PHOTO)

Sustainability, green economy, ecological products, green materials, recycling, circular economy, the UN Green Agenda are certainly topics that have been given great attention for years back, and newspaper articles, social networks and so on are full of them. Similarly, you will frequently encounter articles about new biotechnologies, green materials, which, when looked into a bit more, are not exactly that “green” or sustainable. In the sense of having ingredients that are not recyclable or containing elements from the food chain, making them unsustainable etc.

Those who are in the industrial design business encounter all those recyclable and unrecyclable and (un)sustainable materials on a nearly daily basis, considering the profession that they’re in, and unfortunately, it is only the rare among them, like eKapija’s interviewee and the members of his team, who have a pronounced ecological awareness and who are worried about where all that plastic, metals and other non-recyclable materials end up and what is left for the coming generations to inherit.

When plastic has a limited recycling cycle…

It is precisely for those reasons that eKapija’s interviewee, Nikola Djuraskovic (26) and his colleague Nedeljko Tica (29) got the idea back during the industrial design studies at the Faculty of Applied Arts to make a project together – a material that would replace all those projects that are widely used in this industry, primarily plastic, which unfortunately also has a limited number of recycling cycles.

Unfortunately, during their studies, they didn’t manage to realize their idea, because somehow each one went his own way – Nedeljko started working for the famous American designer of local origin – Sava Cvek, and Nikola planned to do master studies in Italy and… Then corona happened, life prevented Nikola from going to Italy, which he didn’t want to replace with online studies, because that would not have given him the full education that the country which is the cradle of art and aesthetics could provide. But he did meet Nedeljko, who was already then moving to another company in Belgrade and recommended Nikola to the famous Sava to work for him, and then, during a brainstorming session on the balcony of an apartment in New Belgrade, they decided to look into the concept of sustainability.

For more than a year, they were learning about the EU legislative, the existing biomaterials, the state of the market, both the local and the foreign one, and decided to create a product that would be fully green and also sustainable, and which would, above all, replace plastic in objects from the domain of small home appliances, home decoration and so on – because that is what industrial designers deal with the most, and to, in that way, prevent the generation of large quantities of waste and landfills throughout our country, but also the world.



Not only is food produced, a new product is made from the waste

– An air filter was our first vision of an ecological product. We wanted to replace a large part of the plastic that such products contain, and the rest is certainly mostly aluminum, which is a material which can be recycled endlessly. And that’s where we first encountered research about hemp, which is suitable due to the length of the fibers, but we realized that that would not be that sustainable, because growing hemp would take away the resource – land, which can be used for the production of food. And we wanted our product to be made from unused natural resources, like secondary raw materials from the agricultural industry. Researching further, we got to processed corn. The land is primarily used for the production of corn, that is, food, and its waste, that is, corn waste, also reduces the yield if it is merely plowed after the harvest – Nikola Djuraskovic begins his story about the development of this innovative product.

That’s not even mentioning that, even with all the bans, corn waste is still burned in some fields after the harvest. Some have found its advantage in the form of a stable cover, and some as an ingredient in animal feed, which, according to our interviewee, has proven not to be too nutritional, while some use it as pellet.

So Nikola and Nedeljko created SferiCorn – a biocomposite material which is biodegradable and produced from corn waste fibers, which also provides a sustainable alternative to plastic, enabling industries to reduce their environmental impact.

Cooperation with professor from Faculty of Applied Arts

Thanks to that, it has proven to be ideal for the purpose devised by Nikola and Nedeljko. The only thing that needed to be mastered was the technology. The two of them experimented by themselves, researched scientific papers online, looked into others’ experiences in the further implementation of corn waste and made their first product – an ashtray. That was as far as they could go at that moment. And then they asked their professor from the Faculty of Applied Arts, Irena Zivkovic for help. Back during their studies, she had turned their attention to her course “Knowing Materials” and got them interested in dedicating themselves to precisely that in the future.

– At the moment we contacted her in 2022, we didn’t have a startup, we didn’t have funds, nothing – except for the idea. But then she responded to the idea very well and she was proud that we were dealing with materials. And it also coincided that, at that exact moment, she was thinking about focusing on researching biocomposites, from which moment she became a full member of our team, which was made official in the spring this year with the founding of the Serbian innovation startup Sferikon – says Nikola, who has the role of the director at this company, in charge of the development of ecological solutions, with a focus on sustainability.

Nedeljko, who already has experience with creating innovative products because he is already working in an innovation startup, has the role of the technical director, in charge of process and technology development.



Nothing needs to be said about the professional role of professor Zivkovic in this startup, as Nikola says in his interview for eKapija, considering her rich experience and expertise in the development of biopolymers and composite materials, as well as her qualities as a human being.

Biodegradable coat hanger for the biggest polluter – the fashion industry

From the moment they contacted the professor, with her help, this team first developed a wireless phone charger, and then they fully switched their focus from devices which contain electronic components to the industry which is currently one of the biggest polluters – the fashion industry.

– We couldn’t think about the production of textile from corn waste, because the process of extracting the fibers is very expensive, but we focused on a plastic product that that industry uses a lot. And that’s how the biodegradable coat hanger made from the SferiCorn material was created, whose pilot project began in the first quarter of 2025 – adds Nikola and notes that the SferiCorn project is supported through the SmartStart 2024 program of the Innovation Fund of the Republic of Serbia.



In the meantime, in cooperation with the Graz University of Technology, they also tested the properties of the sound insulation of the SferiCorn material, with the aim of implementing them in interior sound paneling.

– Also, we have realized key cooperation with the Institute for Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering in Belgrade, where our materials were tested in detail and scientifically confirmed. In concrete terms, it has been confirmed that our material can be composted, recycled and that the basic material can be obtained again, but with improved mechanical properties – points out Nikola. The possibilities of the development of the implementation are certainly endless, but Sferikon’s aim is to develop a granulate that can be applied in various ways in the already existing processes.



– We want to make it possible for manufacturers to inject our SferiCorn granulate in their molds, instead of plastic, thereby allowing them to keep their existing machinery and facilities. Usually, new technologies require new devices and facilities, but this way, we would enable manufacturers to keep their old facilities and just change the technology – reveals Nikola.

Solution for polyurethane foam as well

Some companies in the market have already seen the benefits of cooperation with Sferikon, such as finding the solution for the company Steel Impex, for polyurethane foam waste. To clarify, this foam is not recyclable, and at Steel Impex, during the recycling of refrigeration devices, around 1,000 tons of waste of rigid polyurethane foam is generated per year. Since recently, it can no longer be incinerated with other waste either. The Sferikon team has found a solution for this as well, that is, it has developed the rPU project, which aims to allow waste that is difficult to recycle to find its application in the construction industry, that is, in building and roof panels. This project has also been supported by UNDP through the EU Green Agenda program in Serbia.

Judging by the fervor with which he talked to eKapija about the new achievement and the future plans, among them, those having to do with smart technologies too, we would say that this is just the beginning of the Sferikon and SferiCorn story. And with them, it seems, this planet stands a chance of becoming greener.

Danijela Stanimirovic-Gavrilov

SFERIKON DOO SREMSKA KAMENICA

Fakultet primenjenih umetnosti Beograd

Fond za inovacionu delatnost Beograd

Steel Impex doo Bačka Palanka

Irena Živković

Nikola Đurašković

Nedeljko Tica

SferiCorn

SmartStart 2024

industrial design

innovations

eco product

green materials

green economy

fashion industry

plastic

recycling

aluminum

sound panels

polyurethane foam

biodegradable coat hanger

biodegradable material

corn

corn waste