Turning waste into furniture
At Mater, we continually strive to push the boundaries of traditional furniture production and beliefs.
The world’s take-make-waste economy consumes 100 billion tonnes of materials a year. Today only 7.2% of this is recycled.
Using the world’s raw materials to make products that eventually will be thrown away as waste is not a long-lasting solution.
Much of this waste ends up in landfills or incinerators, lost forever and contributing to the world’s accelerating CO2 emission.
Our planet’s resources are not infinite, and we need to change this way of production now.
Using waste material, Mater combines sustainability and
circular production with timeless design.
"Every material we use is a tribute to sustainable thinking"
- Henrik Marstrand
Founder of Mater and Head of Circular Transformation
Waste streams we use
Industrial plastic waste
Most of our industrial plastic waste comes from large-scale corporations. A new innovative waste-to-value technique enables to reuse industrial waste by turning it into design pieces.
Discarded fishing nets
Old fishing nets from the ocean are collected, washed, shredded and made into pellets that are also called green plastic. Ocean waste is used in our outdoor series and injection moulded chairs.
Used beer kegs from Carlsberg
Once empty, beer kegs are deflated, turned into granules and cast into the green slats our Ocean OC2 Collection is known for.
Mango wood waste
A Mango tree is cut down every 7-15 years when the tree stops to bear fruit, and a new tree is planted. Harvesting the wood that was previously burnt or left to break down naturally provides sustainable furniture.
Spent grain waste
Spent grain waste from the Danish Carlsberg brewery provides the fibre material that are used in various new circular products.
Through years of research and testing, we invented Matek®.
The unique patented material enables us to make furniture of waste materials by combining fibre with a binder. Coffee bean shells, extracted during the roasting process, are an example of fibre material. Sawdust from wood production is another. The binder material is made from plastic waste. The mix of materials results in a unique compound suitable for press moulding.
The new material can be processed again and again. That is why we unhesitatingly offer to take furniture made with Matek® back at the end of its life to recycle it into new furniture. The technology allows us to recycle waste with more efficiency. Using resources that otherwise would be burned, we capture carbon in Matek®, thus reducing CO2 emissions.
Click here to learn more about Matek®