TraceMatter™ - PHA Biocomposites for 3D Printing
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Most plastic is designed to last, then designed to be forgotten.Most plastic is designed to last, then designed to be forgotten.
TraceMatter™ starts from a different question: what happens after the object has done its job.
At its core, TraceMatter™ returns to nature on its own. No factory required.
It is our family of PHA biocomposite filaments, made for FDM 3D printing, blended with real biomass residue for texture and colour in every print.
In the studio, we test every blend ourselves. Composition. Print settings. Geometry. So we know exactly how a material behaves before it reaches your printer.
PHA stands for Polyhydroxyalkanoates. It begins with microorganisms fed on plant sugars and oils. As they grow, they store the surplus as PHA, a natural reserve close to fat. That reserve melts and shapes like any plastic. At the end of its life, microorganisms can break it back down, in soil or seawater, into carbon dioxide, water and organic matter.
Most bioplastics, PLA included, only return to nature inside an industrial composting plant. TraceMatter™ starts from a different base. Its core PHA resin is certified by TÜV Austria for both home composting and marine biodegradation.
The biomass residue like shell powder and seaweed in TraceMatter™ do more than give each print its colour and texture. This puts TraceMatter™ in the same broad category as the PHA composites studied in published research: blends with natural fibres, minerals and organic waste that have consistently been shown to speed up biodegradation rather than slow it down. Conventional plastic works the opposite way: fragments simply sit in soil and water for decades, sometimes centuries, without disappearing.
TraceMatter™ is built on that same principle: material designed to be consumed and broken down by microorganisms, rather than material that simply fragments and stays behind.
FDM printing builds directly from a digital form, without dedicated moulds. For small batch and on demand production, this limits offcuts and excess stock from the start.
Bringing PHA and 3D printing together lets us think about form, material use and afterlife from the very beginning, not as an afterthought once the object already exists.
This is the basis of our approach to sustainable design. We ask this question at the start, before the first print. For brands, architects and designers shaping how a space feels. For larger companies building sustainability into how they make things. For individual makers on their own printer, looking for something better than plastic.
The Shoreditch Design Week presentation includes material samples and 3D-printed studies. Full production spools are planned for October 2026, with small test quantities available before launch.
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