In the second part of our feature on circular materials, we look at rigid and flexible materials. Developed from components such as sawdust, fungal structures, building rubble or discarded plastic, they are beginning to change our understanding of aesthetics.
by Markus Hieke
The more you look into innovations in the field of recyclable materials, the more fascinating it all gets. This is because they often fundamentally rethink material flows as we know them. They tell of a past life or lead us into a world of underestimated organisms. Exploring them in depth is more than a purely creative task. Their resistance to everyday influences, their compressive and tensile strength, their elasticity, their colour fastness, their reproducibility and, above all, their end-of-life concept, their recyclability or compostability must be tested. Only then can we ask whether their look, feel and uniqueness will find buyers.
Downcycling Is Not the Same as Circularity
The fact that it is relatively easy and energy-efficient to put well-sorted polymers into a second, third and perhaps never-ending cycle of use has made plastic recycling a well-established practice. However, this valuable resource is by no means always reused.
Design-led initiatives such as The Good Plastic Company are working to change this: under the Polygood brand, the Dutch company sells sheet materials made from 100% post-consumer plastic, the only ones of their kind to be cradle-to-cradle certified. Polygood also has an EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) based on a detailed life cycle analysis. The panels are available in a variety of finishes: with coloured inclusions reminiscent of confetti, marble or terrazzo, in dark, light and translucent collections. Customers can return used panels free of charge through a take-back programme.
Distinction through Design
On a smaller scale, Dutch company Sustaign also offers sheet material made from post-consumer plastics for interior applications. Recently, we have been working intensively on customising the material for specific projects,’ says founder Lisanne Kamphuis. In terms of design, she gives the material an elegant marbled look that harmonises with various materials, including natural ones.
The Austrian company Fantoplast is also dedicated to transforming plastic waste into high-quality sheet material. Managing director Raphael Volkmer has been involved for several years in the Precious Plastic Vienna association, which is part of an international network based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. After the demand for ready-to-use materials made from everyday and industrial waste increased, he and four co-founders started series production of recyclable PETG panels in 2024. To keep transport routes as short as possible, the Viennese start-up buys its resources from regional recycling companies.
From Waste to Beauty
It is well known that the construction industry is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. But how can we continue to build and at the same time at least limit the impact on the environment and the climate? Driven by this question, the Amsterdam-based company Front produces, among other things, bricks and tiles that are largely made of construction waste. To date, Front’s WasteBasedBricks and WasteBasedSlips have processed almost three and a half thousand tonnes of waste and integrated it into architectural and interior design projects in a visually appealing way. Front’s portfolio also includes façade shingles made from recycled PVC, wall panels made from maize production waste and panels made from short cellulose fibres, such as those produced in large quantities by paper mills.
Designer Tom van Soest, who developed the ‘WasteBasedBricks’ as part of his graduation project at the Design Academy Eindhoven and marketed them under the StoneCycling brand from 2012, is now breaking new ground: with Blended Materials, he is focusing on the production of bricks that use only ground up construction waste and no new raw materials at all.
The Future Is Organic
The spectrum is even more diverse when it comes to organic resources. Designer Christien Meindertsma, for example, has been working with linen fibres and oils for years. Now, with technical support from flooring manufacturer Forbo, she has moved away from traditional linoleum production and, in collaboration with British brand Dzek, is offering a versatile panel material called ‘Flaxwood‘ – with a texture that confidently emphasises its natural origins rather than hiding them (as linoleum often does).
With ‘Sprwood‘, Sofia Souidi, who won the ‘Best of Best’ title at one&twenty in 2018, has developed a material for which she combines recycled wood fibres with a bio-based binder. The casein she uses comes from milk overproduction. The Berlin-based designer points out that 95 per cent of all fibreboards are made with formaldehyde-based glues, which are known to be harmful to humans and the environment. What’s more, unlike the recipe she developed with the support of the Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research WKI, they prevent the materials from being recycled or at least composted at the end of their life cycle.
Ingredients for ‘Flaxwood’: linseed oil, extracted from the ripe seeds of the flax plant, and wood dust | Photos: Mathijs Labadie
Just Like Leather, but Without the Animal
Another exciting area is the development of vegan and bio-based leather alternatives that do not use plastics. One such company is Nuvi, based in Germany, which produces its deceptively realistic-looking materials for furniture and fashion applications mainly from vegetable components. The realistic finish is achieved by adding chalk or marble dust. MycoWorks in the USA has succeeded in creating a leather alternative from microscopically fine mushroom structures. In the 1990s, co-founder Philip Ross experimented with mycelium for design and art applications. In 2020, after several years of research, the company unveiled the leather-like material ‘Reishi’, which is grown in the laboratory to create three-dimensional structures with variable thickness, elasticity and texture. Initially launched with the fashion and luxury industries in mind, a design company, Ligne Roset, is now testing its use.
Copenhagen-based Natural Material Studio, led by designer Bonnie Hvillum, focuses less on imitation and more on experimental material studies. One big difference: nothing here is designed for mass production. At 3daysofdesign 2024, the interdisciplinary team presented panels made of sawdust and translucent foils in collaboration with the architecture and design firm Office Kim Lenschow. In the showroom of Danish brand Dinesen, it was more of an artistic intervention. If we want wood to be part of a more sustainable solution, we have to make sure that we use the whole trunk, from the boards and offcuts to the shavings, sawdust and dust,” say Hvillum and Lenschow. To ensure that the material dissolves without the use of chemicals, only the binders in the wood are activated. For her material creations ‘Bio-textile’ and ‘Bio-foam’, which she presented in the installation ‘White Utopia’ in the former industrial harbour of Refshaleøen, Bonnie Hvillum uses a mixture of protein-based polymers, natural softeners and chalk. The moulded, rubber-like materials are not only biodegradable, but can also be melted down and re-poured.
The list of recyclable solutions goes on and on. What they all have in common is not only their motivation to minimise emissions and environmental impact. They also influence our aesthetic reality. The imperfect one-off may come to define the world around us – beautifully ephemeral, ephemerally beautiful.
Also on ndion:
Innovative Approaches for a Circular Textile Future
Goodbye microplastics: In the first part of our special feature on recyclable materials, we focus on bio-based fibres, yarns and fabrics for fashion and interiors, which are seen as promising alternatives to organic cotton and linen.
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About the Author
Markus Hieke is a freelance journalist and author specialising in interior/product design and architecture. With a background in communication design, he started writing in 2013 and has since established himself in renowned German and international trade and consumer media. His mission is to make design accessible to a broad audience through portraits, interviews and background reports on protagonists and topics ranging from craftsmanship to circularity, even when they are out of the limelight.
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