swissrelief.ch

Material

Printed in PLA — a renewable, plant-based plastic.

Every relief is printed in PLA: a bioplastic made from renewable plant sugars rather than crude oil. It looks and feels like a premium plastic, but its raw material grows back.

  • Renewable & plant-based

    Made from plant sugars that regrow each season — not from finite crude oil.

  • Lower-carbon production

    Takes less energy and emits less CO₂ to make than most petroleum plastics.

  • Rigid & indoor-stable

    Low-odor, dimensionally stable, and built to sit on a shelf for years.

What is PLA?

PLA (polylactic acid) is a thermoplastic made by fermenting plant sugars from renewable crops like corn and sugarcane. Unlike conventional plastics such as ABS or PET, it is not derived from petroleum — its carbon comes from plants that absorbed CO₂ as they grew.

Because the feedstock is grown rather than pumped, PLA is a renewable material: the crops regrow each season. Producing it also takes less energy and emits less CO₂ than most oil-based plastics, which is part of why we chose it for everything we print.

End of life

PLA is industrially compostable: under the controlled heat and humidity of a commercial composting facility it breaks back down into water and CO₂. It will not, however, compost in a home garden or a landfill, so a relief you no longer want is best handed to an industrial composting or dedicated PLA-recycling stream where one exists. Kept indoors, it simply lasts.

See it in your own relief

Design a relief of any place on earth, or browse the catalog — every piece is printed in renewable PLA in our Swiss workshop.