ARPER + PAPERSHELL
Can a chair shift opinion?
This is a positive story about PaperShell, a new material for chair seats: made from paper and natural resin, resilient, mouldable, emission-free, waterproof, and can be returned to earth or more specifically to a valuable commodity in the form of biochar when no longer needed for sitting.
Great news: a material that uses by-products from the timber industry, fully re-usable (the shell, not the rest of the chair), and it could replace millions of vacuum formed plastic seats.
Another example of how we can only make progress with anything new through collaboration, in this case between material innovator PapeShell and well-financed furniture manufacturer Arper. A small-scale start-up in either category will find it very hard to get beyond the idea.
Arper held a panel to discuss this during Clerkenwell Design Week, and fair to say there was a degree of cynicism in the room. One chair made well and potentially fully circular, no precise detail about how take-back and return to nature will happen, in amongst a sea of brand new shiny not-so-good products, part of a global industry that relies on quick churn and rolling the can.
And an audience of designers and architects who know the subject backwards but find the door barely ajar when it comes to persuading clients and contractors to consider the subject seriously.
This is not Arper’s fault, the furniture industry alone cannot shift the dial, which made me think who or what can?
1 LONG TERM INDUSTRIAL POLICY
We need more in place to incentivise innovation and to adapt existing production to better methods, including for smaller players; also regulation aligned to clear long-term, coordinated industrial and environmental planning and regulation from government(s).
2 OPINION SHIFT
We also need to really quickly up everyone’s understanding of what circular is and why it matters. Unless consumers (that’s all of us) get it, demand will remain niche and take-up slow.
Which brings us to public awareness and sense of agency: does anyone know or care about this stuff, and can other industries lead by example here, more effectively?
3 SHOPPING TROLLEY LOBBY
Can’t help thinking we need to tackle these huge abstract problems at a very tangible, everyday level. For example, everyone uses supermarkets which are awash with packaged goods, many unnecessarily so, using materials not currently recyclable. The uniformity and prevalence of this situation validates continuance unchecked: same problem, different department.
If supermarkets were required (or preferably chose) to take their packaging back and banned from using materials not easily recycled or composted they would change how they do things; more loose and local, less long-life, cash-back for returning bottles and cans, perhaps fewer products overall as some suppliers fail to comply. A tiny bit less convenient but a simpler, more enjoyable experience with lots of info about how, why, benefits and cost-savings.
The potential power of the highstreet shop to question the status quo and perhaps change opinion is huge, far more so than the chair maker; of course there are questions of affordability and it’s a admittedly a stretch to convert the vegetable aisle to a political/social platform. But, If we all understood that our grocery basket has an impact on the planet, that we have power through our choices, and that change does not automatically mean extra cost or detriment, it might be a short(er) hop to applying the principle to other aspects of consumer life.
Back to the chair, it’s a start, which is indeed a good thing, and PaperShell has multiple potential applications including circuit boards and bicycle seats. Someone with a better grasp of systems thinking needed to sort out the rest, includng the question of exactly how many new chairs we need in the world.
Arper Catifa Carta
PaperShell 100% bio-based
APT | PaperShell production
Circularity explained Ellen Macarthur Foundation