On July 3, 2021, the European Directive came into force that prohibits the sale of disposable plastic items to combat pollution. This law is aimed at stopping manufacturing but not stopping their use. Currently, these products are replaced by short-lived products, introducing changes to replace them with reusable, compostable or biodegradable ones, made from natural fibers.

According to consumer trends in 2023, it can be confirmed that there is a widespread interest in awareness of the environmental and social impact and in the search for brands that share these values and offer more sustainable options. Technology must accompany products without losing human interaction, transparency and honesty, and the customer experience, giving them the best possible value. Therefore, the use of sustainable biomaterials is experiencing a boom in recent years given the advantages they offer over other materials that can be harmful to the environment, such as polymers derived from petroleum.

The university is the ideal setting to raise awareness and encourage students to commit to the use of sustainable materials. We must also consider the possibility of working together with different universities and educational entities, in areas of knowledge that are apparently different but that, considered as a whole, benefit learning. The two areas we have worked on are engineering in industrial design and jewelry. From each setting we can enrich ourselves and discover new points of view that converge and interact with our interests.

In this sense, it is proposed that from these areas of knowledge teachers propose projects where students investigate sustainable materials, experiment with them, propose samples, as well as possible uses. Thanks to this methodology of experimentation, of awakening curiosity in the student, problem solving will generate in the student the well-known learning by discovery of Jerome Bruner. The more the student is involved in their learning, the more consolidated their knowledge will be and thanks to this we will also promote meaningful learning. Once this phase is completed, the creation of a physical database catalogue of natural sustainable materials from different real challenges is proposed. The characteristics of the raw material should not be limited, which obviously must be sustainable, since they can be based on new materials, or the possibility of giving a second use to materials already used. In this way, students will learn about these types of materials and their versatility first hand, and will be able to contribute to the dissemination of the great role that sustainability plays in the field of engineering. The collaboration of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the Escuela de Arte 3 de Madrid been the beginning to achieve not only the physical library with the samples obtained by the students, but also a reference manual of possible creative uses. Ultimately, this project does not only seek to publish a catalogue of sustainable materials, but also for students to investigate new ways of creating with the goal of sustainability in mind.

Keywords: Sustainable materials, biomaterials catalogue, jewelry design, education.