Recycling comfort

When plastic components feel good to the touch, these same properties may make it difficult to recycle them. But now the “impossible” has been made possible. As part of a four-year joint project involving SB Seating (Scandinavian Business Seating), SINTEF and the Norwegian company Lycro, office chairs will be developed which are comfortable for their users without them being fully upholstered. The armrests are in fact moulded on top of the textile without a trace of glue. Furthermore, the entire armrest component is made of one and the same material, inside and out. Both the underlying component and the covering textile are made of polypropylene plastic. This means that the components can be sent straight to the recycling mill when the chair has reached the end of its lifetime, and new plastic components can be manufactured from the ground material. This work is funded by the Research Council of Norway.