From Idea Bank to the Pentawards Podium: How ParagonCorp’s Innovation Team Developed Y.Lab

As attention to waste grows, the packaging of everyday products has become one of the things that needs a closer look, and the beauty industry is no exception. Bottles, caps, and boxes that enter the waste management stream cannot always be absorbed by it. Waste banks and plastic sorting do help, but some plastic still cannot be processed any further. Meanwhile, Indonesia, with its rich marine ecosystems, is facing pressure and degradation. Y.Lab grew out of a simple question: how can a package be designed from the start with its end of use in mind, and how can waste, which is usually a burden, be turned into part of a sustainable marine ecosystem?

Y.Lab is a perfume prototype with a Y-shaped cap made from calcium carbonate. The shape was chosen so that collected caps can be reassembled into a modular structure inspired by coral reefs. The cap is designed to sink in the sea and to be developed further as a medium for marine ecosystem restoration. The glass bottle can be recycled, while the secondary packaging is made from coffee grounds. The concept won Silver at Pentawards 2026, held in London on 17 October 2026.

Y.Lab was developed by ParagonCorp alongside two other projects, Sukla and Complexion, which were shown at Dutch Design Week 2026 after passing curatorial selection. Ritchie Ned Hansel, Creative Director of Product & Innovation at ParagonCorp, and Dwi Suci from ParagonCorp’s Sustainability Communication team explained how the three projects came together, and why waste became their shared starting point.

Y.Lab began with a decision to compete. According to Ritchie, the team saw an opportunity at Pentawards in the conceptual sustainability category while attending Paris Packaging Week in February 2026. Four people were involved in its development: Aldin, Abi, Zaka, and Fitra. Sukla and Complexion followed a different path. Both are sustainability design projects the team has often worked on, and the opportunity to exhibit came through Dutch Design Week.

The idea for Y.Lab’s material came from Aldin, who is part of ParagonCorp’s CEI (Creative Experience and Innovation) Studio, which develops Paragreen. While visiting World Expo Osaka 2025, he came across a journal at one of the pavilions that studied the potential of calcium carbonate as an environmentally friendly material, especially in the sea, because it sinks. From that finding, other teams contributed ideas. The Product Innovation Development (PID) division, whose job is to experiment and innovate, happened to hold an idea bank that included a fragrance product with secondary packaging made from coffee waste. The question, Ritchie said, was what might happen if the two ideas were combined into a single concept.

The question of what happens to packaging once the contents are used up became the guide for the design. “What is the perfume bottle for once the perfume is gone?” Ritchie said. He explained that plastic waste has many recycling routes, from waste banks to sorting by plastic type, but some of it still cannot be processed further. For that reason, the materials were chosen with the end of use in mind. Glass can be recycled, and a calcium carbonate cap can sink in the sea. The hope is that collected caps could become part of a CSR program for coral planting.

What goes inside the bottle is also inspired by the sea. Y.Lab takes five Indonesian marine destinations as its sources of inspiration: Raja Ampat, Wakatobi, Takabonerate, Banda Neira, and Bunaken. Each fragrance represents the character of its ecosystem, so the five variants become five different sea stories. The backdrop is the Coral Triangle, one of the richest marine ecosystems in the world, which is now under pressure and degrading.

Ritchie named two things he believes were judged at Pentawards. The first is the unique material. The second is Y.Lab’s ability to showcase Indonesia’s natural wealth, which he said could be a distinctiveness that other countries do not have. Many aspects beyond the material were worked on, then packaged into one complete theme.

The biggest challenge came at the prototyping stage. “The material research had to be tested, then a 3D prototype had to be made which, even though it was still a concept, had to be truly producible,” Ritchie said. Product decisions such as net volume and size also had to be worked out. The team collaborated with outside parties, for example colleagues in Bandung who designed the material and studied how far it could be molded. The process took about a month until the submission was sent.

At Dutch Design Week, a similar approach appeared at a different scale and in a different product. Sukla began with the question of whether everyday waste could become part of a personal care routine. Organic waste such as rice, coffee, orange, coconut, cacao, and banana is close to daily life, but most of it has yet to be given an optimal second life. Sukla processes it into a shampoo bar with compostable packaging made from rice husk. The approach is a circular product system, with sustainability applied from the material, formula, and form to the packaging and the experience of using it.

Then there is Complexion, which processes cosmetic sludge, a by-product of cosmetics manufacturing that is conventionally of low value. The sludge is combined with a bio-based binder to make a new composite material for furniture and interiors. The results include a lounge chair, coffee table, stool, laptop table, ottoman tray, and modular elements.

Dwi Suci explained that this work grew out of internal culture. “One of Paragon’s values is to provide a safe space for exploration,” she said. From that space came the thinking to start recycling items and waste. Paragon has previously worked with Rekosistem, a climate-tech and waste management company in Indonesia that applies a circular economy approach. Some of its work has also been entered into the Good Design Award Indonesia. In 2023 to 2024, the Paragreen initiative processed 6 tons of plastic. Dwi added that over the course of a year, the agenda does not stop at Paragreen, as there are many other innovations being developed at CEI Studio.

CEI’s job, according to Ritchie, is to be an innovation bank that keeps making new things. The team is already large, and the next concept to be submitted to a competition has been prepared. For Y.Lab itself, the hope is to reach a wider market. “I hope that when our innovative work is recognized, we will be even more motivated to innovate,” he said.