The first seat in this material is the Re-Chair, designed by Antonio Citterio, for now only in the black variant, but the partnership will evolve soon in other products and colours.
However, not all recycled plastics can be ennobled and used in printing processes that guarantee the high standards of quality and resistance of high-end furnishings. This is the case of many bioplastics, deriving from renewable and organic raw materials such as corn, wheat, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, algae or vegetable oils, used above all in packaging but not as structural materials.
In fact, there are few companies that have already experimented with the use of bioplastics in the production of furniture. Among these Kartell, the first to have used, in 2018, a vegetable polymer from sugar cane waste, and Magis which this year, with the Alpina seat, bets on a new injection-molded bioplastic: a polypropylene deriving from used cooking oils.
A bet that will open the doors to interesting research and circular economy scenarios and to new supply chains between furniture and the agri-food sector.