by aleida, on November 5th, 2009
Some of the most fascinating products in our materials library are made from… well, trash. We applaud this approach because we are extremely adept at generating inordinate amounts of trash. According to the US EPA, in 2007 alone, “U.S. residents, businesses, and institutions produced more than 254 million tons of MSW” (Municipal Solid Waste) … “which is approximately 4.6 pounds of waste per person per day.” MSW includes everything from food scraps to batteries and appliances. This is a staggering number. Here’s a chart breaking it down– note that the total is before any recycling efforts:
However, MSW is not all the waste there is. In fact, it is but a sliver of the total waste that our society generates. Here’s a more comprehensive look:
The “special” section includes medical waste, pesticide containers, slaughterhouse waste, and others. “Industrial” refers to waste generated in the creation of useful products from raw materials, and includes waste from the iron, steel, and paper industries, food processing, and plastics and textile manufacturing.
So, if MSW is just one percent, that means that, in total, we produce approximately 25 billion tons of waste. This is why we love manufacturers that take some of that trash and make it into something useful. There are already hundreds if not thousands of consumer products made out of waste that was meant for the landfill. Luckily, there are also more industrial-strength products that follow the same principle.
The products in our library that incorporate waste actually up-cycle it rather than recycle it. I’ve already written about some of these, covering wastes such as recycled glass, reclaimed wood, and recycled aluminum. Here are a few of our other favorite companies that are redefining the concept of waste:
- Ekobe (Brazil) – This is not a U.S. product, so one must consider the environmental impacts of its transportation. The collection includes wall/furniture coverings made out of reclaimed coconut shells, Castor plant shells, Dendê and rice shell dust, and Babaçu nut shell.
- Cork Mosaic available through Habitus Architectural Finishes (New York) – While sold in the U.S., the raw material for this product also comes from overseas. The product is made out of recycled cork from the cork stopper industry.
- Renewed Materials, LLC (Tennessee) – Their ALKEMI solid surfacing product is made with aluminum scraps from milling practices.
- Junckers (Denmark) – Another company whose products come from overseas but are available in the States. Junckers’ FineLine flooring tiles (in both the Dark and Light colors) are engineered using milling scraps from their own production floor. The tiles therefore contain a variety of wood species and no two are ever the same.
- Paneltech, LLC (Washington) – Their PaperStone line of solid surfaces is made out of post-consumer recycled paper.
We always welcome tips on any company you may know of that also takes trash and turns it into something beautiful.
I like the pie charts. Where did you get the data?
Hi Steve, thanks for the question. Stats came from 2007 EPA data. Take care,
[...] raw version (a similar product is offered by the Brazilian company Ekobe which I’ve covered here as a good example of how companies are reconceptualizing waste). This line offers twelve different [...]