Sustainable furniture start-up Pentatonic is releasing a new line of furniture that is made entirely from re-purposed trash. The company will be launching its first collection of chairs, tables, glassware, and individually sold furniture components this month at the London Design Festival, which opens on Sept. 16 and runs through Sept. 24.
To create their products, waste ranging from cans, to smartphones, to cigarette butts, is cleaned and organized before being shredded into pellets, which are then melted down to be turned into furniture components via an injection-molding process. The furniture components then fit together to build the chairs and tables, without using glues or paints, eradicating the need for tools and minimizing waste and toxic resins. Pentatonic's Airtool Chairs, for example, are made from recycled plastic, and each save almost thirteen pounds of trash with a return value of £34.4 (approximately $41).
All of the furniture parts are modular and standardized, meaning they are interchangeable and easy to swap out without replacing the whole product. Pentatonic hopes to transform consumption culture through the idea of circularity; all the material they use is already in circulation as waste, and Pentatonic will buy back products to be re-purposed into new products, thus continuing the cycle. The products are designed and manufactured in Europe using locally sourced waste. Some waste is additionally brought over from East Asia, an area abundant with smartphone production and glass waste.
Recently, Pentatonic raised £4.3 million (approximately $5.14 million) from investors, which will allow the company to expand its range of products beyond this launch collection, and increase its online presence. Investors include Miniwiz, a Taiwanese upcycler by architect Arthur Huang, along with a number of others.
