Wood is an amazing material and can be very sustainable, if it has a FSC quality label. However, even though wood is biodegradable, it is still a waste to waste it. The Dutch wood working company Herso uses reclaimed wood to make new products, from furniture to floors.

Herso uses wood from old floors, furniture, cut offs from carpenters and of course their own. They select good pieces of wood, even small ones, to use in their designs. Iron pieces, such as nails, are also reused, while sawdust is use to make bio-alcohol, cat litter, and compost. In the rare case they need to use new wood, it is always FSC approved.

Rather than just selling their products, Herso has a sort of deposit money arrangement. In essence, you rent the products. During its use, the product keeps a value that is determined beforehand. At the end of use the product can be handed in, so that Herso can use it again to make new furniture and floors.

All Herso’s tables are solid and made by hand. They only use biodegradable glue.

The company also takes on various projects, such as the no-waste floor of Circl, a circular pavilion in the Netherlands. The floor is the size of a football field and made from wood from all sorts of sources, such as a villa from the 50s, old furniture, a hardwood terras, window-frames, and an old door. All this waste wood is turned into a beautiful wooden floor. And Herso promises that when the pavilion is deconstructed in 25 years, that they will make new products from the floor.

Photos: Herso / Circl