Wood is used for literally thousands of products and the list keeps growing. Here we report on an enterprising company in Korea recycling offcuts, and Carlsberg’s Green Fibre Bottle breakthrough.

Hattern is an upcycling design studio based in South Korea. They aim to show that it is possible to make practical and beautiful furniture items that result in zero waste whatsoever! Hattern says there is no such thing as waste in nature, as all natural materials eventually become the raw materials for another natural process, or help in supporting other organisms. One person’s trash is another person’s raw material, and if we can think a little bit outside of the box, we can be the person who thinks resourcefully, rather than wastefully.

Hattern created “Zero Per Stool,” a set of stools and accessories made from their own offcuts, generated during the making of stool legs out of white oak. The offcuts are reused, cured in resin and reshaped to form the seat. The result is a visually striking surface that combines the warmth of wood with the lovely milkiness of resin. For wood pieces that are too small to incorporate in the stool, HATTERN incorporates the chips into coasters and even fountain pens. In this way “the waste produced from the making of the product is reduced to almost zero.”

Carlsberg Green Fiber Bottle

Last year Carlsberg revealed a prototype of its Green Fibre Bottle, the culmination of a three-year project. The design of the Green Fiber Bottle was unveiled before 500 business leaders at the Sustainable Brands 2016 Conference in Copenhagen. Beverage Daily reported in January last year Carlsberg partnered with Danish packaging company EcoXpac to develop a beer bottle made from sustainably sourced wood fibre. The first prototype of a fibre-based bottle was shown in January 2015 at the World Economic Forum in Davos by chairman of the Carlsberg Foundation, Professor Flemming Besenbacher.

Simon Boas Hoffmeyer, sustainability director, Carlsberg, said the team still had some technical challenges to overcome but having a prototype was a great way to demonstrate how innovation and design can shape products of the future. Challenges include development of the impulse drying technology, critical in creating a wood-fibre mould and the fully biodegradable cap, coatings, inks and binders. Hoffmeyer said Carlsberg plans to commercialize the bottle in 2018 and said it would bring a new and interesting consumption experience to their consumers, and help to reduce reliance on fossil fuels by using a renewable primary raw-material for the bottles.