Office furniture with a business case for recycling: NIAGA ECOR PANELS

In late 2017, we saw an opportunity to combine complementing technologies, ECOR’s only natural fiber based panels with DSM-Niaga’s click-and-unclick adhesive to create fully recyclable, healthier alternatives to particleboard.

Recently, the first DSM-Niaga® ECOR® Panels (NEPs) made from residual materials were delivered to the Makers community, a growing group of professional designers, scientists and craftsmen to creatively test the product. NEPs were created as an alternative to MDF, particleboard, fiberboard or foamboard.

We are convinced that the NEP will make fully circular furniture production a proven reality and a matter of choice, one we anticipate conscious consumers will be eager for.

Circular Design and Conscious Consumerism can solve the Garbage Crisis

The garbage crisis is far reaching and across the globe headlines are touting the importance of eliminating single use plastics. While the debate about what to do about plastics ensues in the public domain, we are designing out the concept of single use products, the concept of waste, period.  In addition to thinking about the downstream impact from a plastic water bottle tossed into the bin, ponder the chair you’re sitting on, the kitchen table in your home, the armoire that stores your clothes. Where will those items go once you are done using them? The answer: most often to the landfill or the incinerator. The reason being, the materials used and the design practically guarantee only one life (user-) cycle. Materials glued together for eternity in MDF and particle board are unable to be recycled. That’s true for most of the furniture available today – it is not recyclable and therefore just another item for the landfill or incinerator.

Human ingenuity coupled with the emerging trend of conscious consumerism will enable us to re-design our way out of a health and environmental disaster that grows worse with every passing day. Demand for circular materials for construction and furnishing is rapidly growing, however there are only a few scalable alternatives for panels. As we build capability to effectively transform trash into desirable new products and materials, without compromising on design, quality or performance we give new life to a material and a new way of design.

“Panels have been on the redesign hit list of Niaga since the start, as one of the top 10 landfill waste items. Together with ECOR we believe to have found a commercially scalable alternative, using waste as input material and allowing for full recyclability into new panels.” says Kelly Hall Managing Director of DSM-Niaga

ECOR & DSM-Niaga partnership

We are constantly looking for material partners who share our design philosophy and our quest for transparency in ingredients. In late 2017, we announced the collaboration between ECOR and Niaga, to research viable, circular panel materials. From our factory in Venlo, we recently delivered the first truckload of panels for distribution to a selected group of early partners, known as the Makers Community.

“Being part of this community of makers is uplifting, both in practice and in spirit. They show the design potential of our material beyond my imagination.”  says Eric Logtens Corporate Director Circular Economy & CEO ECOR Europe.

The new Ecor factory, an old industrial building in Venlo, The Netherlands. On the left the first two panel presses.

Makers Community

Together with a growing group of first phase partners, designers and craftsmen – we are now prototyping with the first panels. Our partners in this circular material journey are people from different places in the value chain. They simply started working as circular as possible because they know there has to be another way. Igor Soons (Entrepreneur, Eco Rebel), Pim Dekkers (Designer of Circular Products), Tim de Graaf (Commercial Director, Altis BV), all earned their spurs in the quest for circularity. You can watch their personal material journeys here:

Pim Dekkers

Tim de Graaf

Igor Soons