Fueling Sustainability in the Furniture Industry with Benvic

Furniture is something of taste, and design trends drive the way to review homes and offices. Designers and artists are proposing new shapes, colours and materials to propose new aesthetic choices with special care regarding functionality and durability. Almost all materials can be integrated: metal, foams, fabrics, natural and artificial leather, wood, composites and plastics.

Since the '60s, plastics have been part of the designer choice in combination with other material types. Plastics give shape, colour, and mechanical performance versatility and open a new generation of solutions.

Material choice is one of the first steps regarding the product life cycle assessment (LCA). Engineers need to readdress their basic choices and think out of the previous materials options: resources optimization and preservation, externalities, and various environmental impacts are now leading the choices on top of the cost and technical performances.

Based on this new scheme, plastics are not over. Some solutions are possible: first, recycling to reuse existing resources and extract new ones; second, bio-sourced to avoid non-renewable resources.

Recycled option

Recycled content into furniture polymers leads the compounder to be more proactive. Post-consumer recyclate variations imply continuously adapting the formulations to maintain consistent materials. By managing almost all bespoke formulations and being involved in plastic recycling, Benvic is able to provide the necessary support for managing features similar to premium grades, especially for polypropylene compounds.

The formulation know-how is also essential as integrating post-consumer recyclates provides some limitations, especially for aesthetic parts. Colour is a limitation; choosing the right secondary raw material can give more freedom. Benvic can manage several colours, but some limitations are seen with warm and light ones:  designers need to integrate new design constraints to allow for more sustainable materials.

Biobased option

When such design contains are not possible, the biobased alternative is there. Our Plantura range fits perfectly for this kind of use. The versatility of usage, colour, and brightness is possible with an optimized LCA, representing a perfect ABS-grade replacement. Several furniture applications are already using Plantura's with success.

Benvic's approach of "Redesign plastics. For good" through recycled and biobased compounds is a reliable way for designers and engineers to meet upcoming environmental regulations for furniture.

More information about the plan for the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR).