The neverending world of the Recycled Paper

There are tons of ways of using Recycled Paper as a material. If we think about how to reuse paper when designing pieces of furniture, then we can look at existing examples such as the one designed by Artists for Humanity in Boston. This table is covered with an ecofriendly resin that protects it from the water

Table by Artists for Humanity

We have also found many designers knitting the paper such as if they were using wicker. After knitting it we need to put a final coat to protect it. The artist Movana Chen desgined a piece called Body Containers where she made clothes out of knitted paper. 

And then last, but not least, I wanted to bring Hong Kong Eureka Interior Design Office proposal for the bike shop Spread by Gum.

The space is also used as a socializing area, and therefore, the client asked it to be versatile. So Eureka designers came with a paper roll wall that can be pulled in and out depending on the needs. 5412 recycled paper tubes of 38.5 mm Ø were used to create this display.

Technical Information about this project:

Location: Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Type: retail shop

Year: 2011

Area: 35m2

Cost: HKD180,000

Liquid Wood

 It looks like wood, feels like wood, is even made of wood – but it shifts shape and solidifies like plastic, bringing together the most powerful material assets of two of the most used materials on the planet.

Lingin (an often-discarded element of regular wood) is combined with natural resins, flax and fibers that can be injected into molds and form extremely complex, precision-shaped objects normally made of conventional, non-biodegradable petroleum-based plastics. The result has been dubbed Arboform by its German inventors, and may well revolutionize the worlds of material science and mass production.

Just like wood, it breaks down quickly and organically into eco-safe by-products like water and carbon dioxide. It is also made from a leftover part of trees that is unused during the paper-making process – over 100 million pounds of its main ingredient are created as a simple side-effect of the existing pulp industry.

What can be made of Arboform? Almost anything you can imagine from simple toys to complex gadgets, disposable cups to long-lasting automobile parts, custom-cast furniture to heavy-duty helmets – think of anything made of plastic or wood, and you will start to get the picture. In short: we are talking about the precision, flexibility and durability of plastic … with the 100% recyclable, renewable, tactile and aesthetic advantages of wood, in a single new material. Eat your heart out, see-through concrete and transparent aluminum!

Coconut Wood Composites

Traditionally, valuable tropical woods has been used to make furniture and floorings. The Coconut tree is known to have many uses, from its roots to tips (leaves), from culinary to non-culinary consumer products, industrial products and medicinal products. To many around the world, the coconut tree is considered the “Tree of Life”. Palm trees used to be cut down at the end of their coconut-bearing years and replaced with new coconut palms. Only in recent years did people started researching on the use of the palm tree after it matures.

Coconut Wood Composites quality is comparable with the tropical woods specifically in terms of durability, sturdiness, and versatility. Its hardness and effectiveness are even at par with other hardwood timber that are more popular in the market like mahogany or oak. It has minimal shrinkage, bowing, or bending properties. Dutch manufacturer Kokoshout derived the name Cocodots due to the natural patterns that the wood has.

NewspaperWood

Trees to wood to paper - paper to wood to useful objects! 

What can be more clever than recycling by reversing the line of production? Well, maybe not turning the paper into a tree, but at least to something useful! Yes, we all know it is bad to cut down trees, we know we can read the newspaper online nowadays, but personally I still prefer reading a good old newspaper in paper format. Designer Meike Meijer and DesignLabel ViJ5 take newspapers back to their origins by turning them into a wood-like building material called NewspaperWood. Furniture, decorative objects and even jewelry look spectacular when made with the artificial wood. Here is a short interview with the team on their inspiration. 

Turning clothes into furniture

Tobias Juretzek combines old clothes with resins to give a second life to those things we have in our drawers and that we won't use anymore. We can buy his furniture through Casamania.

Also from one of the most popular pants worldwide, the jeans, we obtain this Scrap Lab denim chair. The Scrap Lab is part of the Innovation and Technology Department of Kasetsart University in Thailand