Carpets made from old T-shirts, bags made from other bags, cups made of old fishing nets, swim wear made from plastic bottles – the list is long. Especially when we are talking about products made from recycled materials or products made from somebody’s waste. The trend came, saw, developed, and got a life of its own.
We all know that the best way to reduce the amount of waste is to not create it in the first place. However, demand creates the supply – and we are not ready to stop demanding. Someday this demand will die down and our reality will look different, but as the world looks today, old habits die hard. One day we may all dramatically diminish our consumption but, in the meantime, we must tweak the existing consumer goods to either not create as much waste or use the already wasted products. In the adjustable beds market, we see this trend in bed designs. However, a visible part such as the control unit – this is missing.
A market in growth with a contestant missing
More and more beds with sustainable profiles are popping up on the market. The mattresses are made sustainably, the frames are PEFC certified wood, and the fabrics are organic. However, one thing we are yet to see is a hand control that fits this messaging.
Feeling inspired we have taken a small step in the same direction as many environmental visionaries have taken before us. We looked at one of our hand controls and asked the question “what could we do to make it greener?”. Looking at both the interior and exterior, the exterior became our focus.
Wrap it up in German pine wood
After numerous tests with many different materials – ranging from recycled plastic to bio plastics and bean composite – we ended up with a solid material with the right rustic aesthetics. The final composite that makes up the shell is made from 50 percent plastic and 50 percent wood shavings. The wood shavings are a waste product from German sawmills handling PEFC-certified pine wood – a product that would otherwise be burnt or sent to a landfill.
The wood/plastic composite is not unique in and of itself, but it is most often used for bigger products such as terrace boards. As Markus Hofmann, the person behind the project, puts it “… I don’t think it has been used to encapsulate electronic components before. Of course, the reason is that it is challenging to use in that context.” The process was long and filled with testing and revisions to ensure the proper LINAK® quality with the new materials.
The result, however, is one of a kind in the market. Both the story about reducing plastics and using waste products and the rustic look the composite leaves work perfectly with the green agenda. To take it further, it even smells like wood when we first unwrap it!
Baby steps are also steps
Giving wood shavings a second chance is far from going to end the global environmental issues of our time, but we have to start somewhere. We will keep up to date and let ourselves be inspired for our future products.
At least we can now say that the market for hand controls for adjustable beds finally gives manufacturers the choice of using a hand control that better matches the ideology of a green bed.
Please find more information about the HC10 ECO hand control on the product page.
