Soil-Benefiting Materials

• Catifa Carta, from Italian furniture brand Arper, is a lower impact update for its 2001 Catifa 53 chair, made with biogenic, CO2-conscious material PaperShell.
  
  This cellulose composite, which is used for the chair’s shell and derived from paper sheets (made from timber industry waste) and a natural resin binder, ultimately acts as a carbon sink. At the end of its life, it can be converted into biochar through pyrolysis, a burning process that takes place without oxygen and prevents the release of CO2. This biochar can then be used to enrich soil quality, thus supporting biodiversity in the long run.
  
  Each chair will feature a QR code that provides details on its material composition and end-of-life management, ensuring this process can take place.

• Zeology, a sustainable tanning process from Dutch brand Nera, brings similar eco-credentials to animal leather. The mineral-based technology (which uses zeolite – a combination of alumina, silicon sand and oxygen) is free from chrome, heavy metals and aldehyde, and renders a tanned hide fully compostable in nature.
  
  When composted, any subsequent CO2 stored in the skin returns to the earth (rather than being released back into the atmosphere). Plus, the material serves as a fertiliser once disintegrated, and has been shown to encourage 20% more plant growth than industrial equivalents.

• On a more experimental level, Italian designer Davide Balda is exploring alternative applications for textile waste, in the hope that manufacturers will be encouraged to take ownership and dispose of their own waste locally, rather than it ending up overseas.
  
  His project – a collaboration with research centre Fabrica and clothing brand United Colors of Benetton (both Italian) – is testing the use of textile fibres for growing specific crops. Discarded garments are pulverised and sorted into synthetic and organic fibres, then either used as a substrate to germinate seeds, or as a substance to improve soil structure. Findings so far show promise for using linen (which contains lignin) to grow beans.
  
  

For more nature-centric thinking, see our S/S 2024 Colour & Material Direction Neo Nature.