Designer Tim Teven as part of a project titled Recycling Reject has showcased the potential of using waste from paper recycling to create pieces of furniture such as shelves, benches, tables, stools, and more.
When recycling paper, unwanted materials such as metals, plastic, stones, wood, and fibres are separated, sorted, and collected for disposal. Among the wastes are unrecyclable cellulose fibres called screen. Unlike the rest of the wastes, screen is not harmful to the environment.
Teven says that he developed a method of utilizing the screens for furniture after he had visited a paper recycling facility in the Netherlands and learned of the 4,000 tons of screen waste disposed of every year.
“I saw a place to introduce this industrial waste back into the life of the people that create the waste without even knowing it,” Teven told Dezeen.
“My aim is to give function and visual value to the material and introduce it back into our lives as a sustainable object,” said Teven. “Not only to give the material a function again, but also as a tool to tell the story of the unrecyclable fibre and the fact that paper is not infinitely recyclable.”
Collecting screen waste from the Smurfit Kappa recycling facility in Roermond, the screen is shredded and combined with mineral-based pigments and a binding agent. The mixture is then pressure-compressed in moulds, resulting in the building material for the furniture.
“The process involves fairly simple steps, which are energy efficient and don’t use too many resources,” said Teven. “The good thing is that the fibres that are not fit for paper manufacturing are filtered out during the pulping process. That means that the waste fibre is clean of any solids as well as any chemicals, food substances or ink.”
“It’s very nice to see that as a designer you can be an eye-opener for the factory and create a healthy win-win situation for me, them and the environment,” added Teven.
To learn more, click the link below.
http://www.timteven.com/projects/recycling_reject/recycling_reject.html
