Dutch companies StoneCycling, AVR and Mineralz collaborated to make bricks from household garbage.

StoneCycling is a company best known for their WasteBasedBricks, which are bricks made from demolition waste. AVR is a waste and energy company from Rotterdam in the Netherlands that has been converting residual waste from companies and households into energy and raw materials since the 70s. Annually, they process 2.4 million tonnes of waste. Mineralz, lastly, cleans contaminated soil and recycles mineral residual streams into secondary raw materials. Earlier, AVR and Mineralz collaborated to develop a more sustainable paving tile, made with bottom ash, which is ash left over after waste is incinerated.

Together, the three companies started a study to see if the residual waste was suitable to make bricks. This resulted in a test batch of 3500 bricks, which consist of over 35 per cent of AVR’s residual products. The bricks were used to crate AVR’s new reception area of their office in Rozenburg in the Netherlands.

The StoneCycling bricks aren’t the only sustainable materials used in the new reception area. Ceramic tiles by Studio Mixtura that have been glazed with bottom ash glaze have been used in the coffee corner. Studio Wae provided carpet tiles made from biobased, recycled material. The stools and standing tables have been made from recycled PET, made by Better Future Factory. The walls are decorated with by Denimtex, with a wallcovering material made of old jeans and textile. Lastly, the lamps are made from 100 per cent recycled paper and were designed by Studio Snowpuppe.

Photos: Architectuur Maken / Jeroen van der Wielen