3D-Printed Reforestation Seed Balls Helps Forests Repopulate After A Forest Fire

A national runner-up at this year’s James Dyson Award, DISPERSEED hopes to bring floral diversity and a thriving ecosystem back to forests that have been devastated by fires. A group of industrial design students from the Polytechnic University of Valencia have created DISPERSEED, a 3D printed edible seed capsule that they hope will bring floral diversity and a thriving ecosystem back to areas that have been destroyed by the fires. The 3D-printed seed ball invites animals and birds to come and feed on it, allowing the seeds to fall out onto the forest floor.

Inspired by the shape of pollen (as a hat tip to pollen’s ability to travel far and wide to pollinate flowers), DISPERSEED is a bright red bauble of sorts that you can hang around a fire-ravaged forest. The ball, 3D-printed from an edible dough, is filled with seeds that either fall to the floor, or are ingested by small animals and birds, who carry the seed far and wide, helping propagate the seeds.

The seeds are designed to catch the eye. Their bright-red color and fruit-like size attract birds and animals that try to peck or burrow at it. Seeds suspended inside the ball are ingested by these animals, and it passes through their digestive tract, finally reaching the soil after the animal expels them. Within the animal’s digestive tract, the seeds lose their outer coating, making it easy for them to germinate (a process known as endozoochory). The seeds then help sprout more plants that allow a forest to recover after a fire, and the DISPERSEED itself biodegrades into the earth, given the fact that it’s made entirely from natural materials.