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:
Erik de Knoop (Technical Application Specialist DSM-Niaga) and Alwin testing the first NEPs.
The material story
ECOR® Technology uses residual cellulose material flows from urban, industrial, forest or agricultural waste streams to make panels by means of heat, water and pressure. No additives, 100% recycled and 100 % recyclable bio-based and biodegradable beautiful celluloses. The Niaga®Technology finishes the panels by connecting layers and veneer in a reversible way by its polyester adhesive. To allow for decoupling of different materials, Niaga invented an adhesive that decouples on demand. When the NEP is no longer in use, a recycler can “unclick” the adhesive to harvest the two pure material streams.
The combination of the two Technologies offer panels that are:
1) Completely made from cellulosic fibers from e.g. old cardboard, barley from brewing beer, old cotton.
2) A healthier alternative to existing panels like MDF, particleboard, foam board or corrugated cardboard. No added formaldehyde (or substitutions for formaldehyde). No off-gassing.
3) Niaga® Technology’s reversible adhesive allows for easy maintenance (reparations or refurbishment) at the user’s location.
4) NEPs are fully recyclable back into the same quality panels.
We have developed two types of panels:
NEP LightCOR: made from honeycomb sandwiched by two ECOR panels laminated with different kind of wood. The layers are coupled by Niaga® adhesive.
There is no alike product offered by the conventional industry. Niaga® ECOR® Panels are an alternative to MDF, particleboard, fiberboard and other panel material for sectors such as building & construction, furniture, interior decoration and displays.
The Material Journey – eliminating waste, adding life (user-) cycles to resources
The design principles behind NEPs are threefold:
1. Use the lowest possible diversity of ingredients.
2. Only use materials that have been tested for their impact on our health and the environment.
3. Connect different materials only in ways it can be decoupled after use.
Following these principles, materials at the end of their product life are recovered to their original condition. In that way, waste is eliminated and the number of user cycles increase. A panel can be turned into a panel again and again and again…
Further updates on the prototyping are due this summer. Be sure to check in and find out what the results are!
- Published in News & Updates
DSM-Niaga & ECOR: Two Scale-Ups Reaching New Heights Together
Two ambitious scale-ups with two innovative technologies. Combine them together and the possibilities are infinite. “One plus one is not two in this equation but eleven.” That is what DSM-Niaga and Ecor experienced. Read below how directors Chris Reutelingsperger (Niaga) and Eric Logtens (Ecor) talk about their cooperation, market disruption, awareness around sustainability and circularity.
BY: JOYCE DE THOUARS (TRANSLATED BY ECOR)
Large bags filled with hemp and jeans lay on the floor of Ecor’s R&D facility in Venlo, Cradle-to-Cradle capital of The Netherlands. Here they press panels or sheets out of these materials, using water, pressure and heat. Take two sheets, honeycomb cardboard and traditional veneer wood, glue them together with DSM-Niaga glue and you have an endless recyclable desktop.
Thanks to the innovative adhesive technology, the materials can easily be separated at the end of the use phase. By bringing them back into the production process new panels can be made using the same adhesive technology. This keeps the value of the materials at their highest possible level, as it should be in a circular economy.
Circular economy
“I did not know what a circular economy was,” admits Reutelingsperger. “Until it turned out that I have been working on it for years. I just did not know it was called that way.” Circular thinking is in Reutelingsperger’s DNA. As a hobby he developed technologies with which materials can be continually reused and recycled. It grew into a company: Niaga, an anagram of again. Since DSM’s fine chemicals company became involved, they started developing a scalable technology for fully recyclable carpet. This is how the DSM-Niaga joint venture was established.
Logtens is responsible at Ecor for the worldwide marketing of panels or sheets made from cellulose in residual “waste” streams. The potential is enormous, because the panels can be used for many applications: from ceiling tiles and marketing stands/displays to kitchen cabinets. The development of this technology took no less than nine years, it’s now time to bring in revenue, “You can imagine that the level of ambition is very high, if you have been patient for the first dollar turnover”, says Logtens.
“I did not know what a circular economy was, until it turned out that I have been working on it for years”
Both companies are busy scaling up and finding even more applications for their circular technologies. An important step in this is finding the right partners. The CE100 program of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation proved to be a suitable platform for finding ‘like-minded’ parties. The program is aimed at bringing together various stakeholders to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy. “Everybody there has the same ambition and we stimulate each other’s creativity and ideas”, reflects Logtens. It was there that the first contact between Ecor and DSM-Niaga was made.
New applications through collaboration
Not long after, the companies investigated possible ways for cooperation. The technologies were combined and tested in different applications, such as furniture. Logtens shows a kitchen door as an example: “The structure is two Ecor panels with a honeycomb cardboard in between. But for us to able to recycle these back into our production process to make new ones, there should be no oil-based paint or an adhesive that doesn’t allow us to separate the materials”. Lamination with DSM-Niaga adhesive is the perfect solution.
In order to understand the potential impact, think of everything that is made from chipboards: kitchen cabinets, office interiors, table baths. The hard-to-reclaim chipboards are often glued together with glue containing toxic substances such as phenol and formaldehyde. “By replacing these panels with Ecor panels glued together with Niaga-glue, the incinerator and landfill is now a thing of the past”, says Logtens.
More collaborations and research for the development of fully recyclable products is on the program. The door is open to designers with fresh ideas for beautiful concepts, products and applications to broaden adoption of the technology. The starting point of the cooperation between DSM-Niaga and Ecor is ‘Easy to do business with’.
Market disruption
It is a beautiful story and sounds very logical. How do you realize the ambition? And how do you get adaption by the market? Logtens replies resolutely “It is not an ambition, it is a reality, but most people have not seen it yet”.
However, he does not expect the transformation to come from traditional industry, such as in Ecor’s case, for example from the furniture industry. “A disruption almost never comes from the industry to which it relates, it almost always comes from outside. Those guys from Uber were not taxi drivers and those from Airbnb were not Hilton”, compares Logtens. Ecor does not operate in the traditional way, for example by selling to wholesalers, but works directly with its end users. As a result, they skip the middlemen and also remain in control of the material flows needed to make the sustainable impact and their business model work.
“A disruption of an industry almost never comes from the industry to which it relates, it always comes from outside”
Reutelingsperger has a different view of the Logtens Uber analogy: “We were not the ‘taxi drivers’ but we did need the ‘taxi companies’ to validate our process.” DSM-Niaga developed a technology for a fully recyclable polyester carpet. The carpet backing, the glue and the top are of the same material. This makes it possible to endlessly recycle the carpet, in contrast to traditional carpets that consist of several materials. A carpet made from polyester backing with nylon and wool fibers from DSM-Niaga can also be recycled, because the adhesive technology makes it easy to disconnect the materials.
“Our technology was so new that nobody believed it works,” says Chris. Ultimately, American carpet producer Mohawk took on the role of validating the process. Every day thousands of square meters of the carpet are produced. “And now you see that the industry looks at it differently”, Chris concludes. But ultimately it also applies here: the end user must also participate. This requires a higher awareness and better understanding of sustainability and circularity among both companies and consumers.
Sustainable awareness
Three carpet samples are laying on the table. A traditional carpet, a 100% bio-based carpet and the polyester carpet. “When people have the choice between a biobased carpet or a polyester carpet, many think the former is the most circular”, says Reutelingsperger. “However, it is the polyester carpet that is endlessly recyclable.”
“If you have an idea, do not start with the apple. Try to make a passion fruit out of it “
An increasing number of consumers are willing to pay more for a sustainable product. The problem is that it is not always clear what is really sustainable and circular. Reutelingsperger shows a packet of ‘boxed water’ that he bought for $5 in New York. “Under the masses, the cash register is ringing,” he growls. “You can pack water in glass or in PET plastic, but not in paper. Of course you can make toilet paper from the paper, but that is not the same as packaging. “And that is what a circular economy is all about: what happens to materials at the end of a product’s life cycle? “If I am a carpet producer, I want to continue with carpet,” says Reutelingsperger.
From start-up to scale-up
It is remarkable that both companies are on the eve of scaling up after years of development. Many start-ups don’t even get to the scale-up phase. What is that about? It starts with a really great idea, and not many people have those. Reutelingsperger calls it the ‘apple theory’. “If you ask people to write down as much fruit as possible in 30 seconds, everyone comes with apple, and then pear comes, and then comes banana. Try to make it a passion fruit what comes out. “
A lack of discipline and perseverance is also common. Reutelingsperger compares it with a child who learns to walk: “Before a child can walk he or she falls 3,500 times. Most people fall three times and then think: that hurts, it does not work. “
Logtens adds that a good business model is crucial. “Even if you have such a wonderful technology, the business model has to work.” For Logtens, that means looking through the eyes of the customer and not through the eyes of the company. Success is measured beyond turnover and profit margins. “It’s also about how many jobs you have created, what you do on a micro-economic level, carbon footprint, and so on.”.
Speed
Speed is an important factor with which companies can distinguish themselves. It’s a feature that many start-ups have, but larger companies can also switch or pivot quickly. The collaboration between DSM-Niaga and Ecor proves this. “The combination of the two technologies has been validated in an extremely short timeframe looking from the perspective of DSM but this is for us normal” explains Logtens. It shows that speed is more important than the size of a company if you want to take major steps towards a circular economy.
“There are still a lot of people and organizations who think that the big companies are against the little ones. But it’s about the fast against the slow “
Logtens states: “There are still a lot of people and organizations who think that the big companies are against the little ones. But it’s about the fast against the slow. “Reutelingsperger agrees. Moreover, it is precisely through the cooperation between small and large companies that wonderful things happen. Reutelingsperger talks from experience. With Niaga, Reutelingsperger had a technology with huge potential in his hands but only in collaboration with DSM he was able to further develop and make it ready for scaling.
Reutelingsperger looks back when the project was in danger of being discontinued. A project with knowledge institute TNO to develop the glue for carpet went wrong. Reutelingsperger: “You can have a recipe for a product but to scale that same recipe from one liter to 20,000 liters, you’ll have to do a lot to get there.” It is a huge step that comes with huge investments. That drove Reuterlingsperger to look for strategic business partners. “We have called all kinds of large companies such as ICI and AkzoNobel. DSM was the only one who wanted to hear our story”.
The resulting joint venture DSM-Niaga and the cooperation with Ecor is ‘not an ambition, it’s a reality’ and this is just the beginning.
- Published in Articles, News & Updates, News Coverage
Technology can turn waste into ‘a treasure’
The Netherlands: DMS Niaga, a subsidiary of nutrition major Royal DSM, is linking up with sustainable construction materials expert ECOR for a project focusing on the development of fully-recyclable alternatives to particleboard, MDF and other panel products used in building/construction, furniture, interior decoration and displays. ‘Looking at the piles of waste generated by the interior and construction industries, design for recycling is inevitable,’ stresses DSM.
The combination of materials and ingredients used in most products made with MDF and particleboard is ‘the biggest challenge’ for technically and economically feasible recycling, according to the companies.
Both ECOR and DSM-Niaga have been redesigning products to be fully recyclable back into the same product. In recent months, the two have explored combining each other’s technologies, with ECOR’s claimed to make materials from natural fibres using only water, pressure and heat.
DSM-Niaga manufactures products by employing a reversible adhesive that enables ‘easy decoupling of different material layers, for full recovery and high-value recycling’.
‘The concept that traditional materials like tabletops are up for incineration or disposal after their life-cycle will be eliminated,’ insists Eric Logtens, ceo of ECOR-NOBLE Environmental Benelux. ‘By combining ECOR and Niaga technologies, the core materials of products can be made from recycled content, and can be fully recycled after use.’
‘I can’t stop thinking of all the possibilities, and I hope that designers will approach us for ideas to make beautiful products and challenge us to broaden the possibilities of these technologies,’ says Chris Reutelingsperger, chief technology officer at DSM-Niaga. ‘By combining ECOR and Niaga, waste becomes a treasure.’
Read Online Here: https://www.recyclinginternational.com/recycling-news/11020/ferrous-metals/netherlands/technology-can-turn-waste-039-treasure-039
- Published in News & Updates
Join us at Sustainable Brands 2015 in San Diego – June 1-4
Learn more about ECOR at this year’s Sustainable Brands Conference at Paradise Point Resort & Spa in San Diego
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- Published in News & Updates