Development of a novel joining and sustainable laminating technology to enable a true cradle to cradle solution for office furniture manufactured from a single material - cardboard (CardOffice)

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Office furniture has a short life span with desks for example having an average life of only 5years. These products are not generally recycled despite most of the materials beingrecyclable due to the makeup of the different materials (wood, plastic, metal) with 85% goingto landfill. This represents significant loss of natural resource, payment of landfill tax and lostopportunity to reuse, recycle and carbon savings.The CardOffice project will build on the expertise gained by Flute Office in creating a singlematerial office desk manufactured from 80% recycled paper and 20% sustainably sourcedvirgin material to create a range of genuinely cradle to cradle office furniture. To enable us todo this we require a number of cardboard only joining solutions to enable us to create strongand easy to manufacture products and a sustainable method of refurbishing the product.The project will develop the knowhow to enable us to create a full range of truly sustainableoffice furniture from a single material which can be easily refurbished. This would have thebenefit of reusing office furniture and avoiding landfill by removing the need to dismantle andmaterial sorting at end of life.The first aim will be to determine the critical parameters and metrics for a card to card joiningsolution and use this information to create a number of joining solutions. The second aim willbe to determine the materials and process by which we can refurbish products throughskimming and laminating. Two pieces of experimental furniture will then be designed andbasic prototypes manufactured. These will then be tested and validated against the designconfiguration by the Furniture Industry Research Association and evaluated for aesthetics andpracticability by a range of end users.