With consumers having sustainability at the forefront of their minds, producers and suppliers are thankfully catching up and providing a greater range of interior finishes for designers to source from which have low impact on the environment, are recyclable and look beautiful.
Gone are the days when designers could strip out a space on a whim and ‘give it a once over’ with new finishes, furniture and fittings. We need to be mindful of our impact, our consumption of materials, how we use them, how we throw them away and what we put in their place.
As designers, we are interested in the blend of innovation and aesthetics – there is no point in cladding a wall with old, rotting pieces of ‘reclaimed wood’ just to be sustainable!
Now we have a plethora of recycled and renewable materials to choose from thanks to UK-based innovators, many of whom are exhibiting at interiors trade shows this year, but a greater number are toiling away in their workshops creating beautiful materials for us to discover.
Cork
Although not produced in the UK, there are a growing number of specialists harnessing the vast benefits of this fast growing, highly sustainable and renewable material. Cork is harvested from the bark of cork oak trees in the Mediterranean, a process which can be repeated multiple times over the tree’s 200-300 year life space. The material is light, naturally flame retardant, impermeable to liquids and thermally insulative – it neither transfers nor absorbs heat. Innovators all over the UK are capitalising on this material’s wonderful properties and creating beautiful products and materials for us to enjoy. Pictures courtesy of Corkstore24.co.uk.
Glass
Glass is one of the most recyclable materials used in interiors. It can be broken down, melted or used as an aggregate in creating other materials and this can be done again and again. The process of making glass does have quite an impact on the environment, but the material’s reusability makes it a very sustainable product. There are several manufacturers across the UK creating exceptional, durable and highly sustainable glass products for interiors, including Diamik Glass in Leeds. They are true innovators in the development of glass products and some of their recycled glass can be seen in the privacy screens at Fortnum & Mason’s chocolate department.
Plastic
Now, plastic has never had a great reputation. Widely used in ’60s, ’70s and ’80s interiors, it became known as a cheap ‘throw-away’ material used for its flexibility and brightly coloured options. We all know the impact this throwaway culture has had on the environment but we have wonderful companies like Smile Plastics, Vita Nova, Polygood and CDUK celebrating sustainable and recyclable plastic products for interiors and creating truly beautiful products for us to utilise and reuse thanks to their buy-back schemes. Smile Plastics produce plastic panels which are 100% recycled and 100% recyclable, made from single-use plastics usually bound for landfill. The beauty of this material is the unique nature of the product, each panel is made from whatever recycled aggregate they have – even using larger businesses’ commercial waste to create their own individual products.
We were delighted to be able to read a few words from the packaging floating in the charcoal panels we used for a customer’s café counter from Smile Plastics.
Terrazzo
Terrazzo is considered to be one of the original sustainable products for interiors. As well as being a beautiful product, its production utilises recycled materials and minimises post-production waste as it can be made onsite.
It is long-lasting, highly durable – oftentimes outliving the life of the building it is in – and can create vast, seamless, shiny and highly decorative floors. It is a highly flexible product and can be adapted to any colour palette, shape or application where a solid surface is required. In the UK, we are lucky to have a wide variety of Terrazzo manufacturers, creating beautiful options for us designers to utilise and reusing an enormous range of former waste products as aggregates for their tiles. Andrew’s Marble and Tiles have been producing since 1886 and are still producing new products, like their Quiligotti range.
There are many, more sustainable materials for you to discover and explore and I hope you share our excitement in utilising these products, many of which can be found here in the UK, for your next project.
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