Compostboard

The sheet material is circular within the renewable economy principles. Rik Makes gives back what they take when it comes to fibres, and include nature’s decompositions quality’s when they researched their binder breaking down in nature.

The used binder is starch based. When decomposed the starch energises organisms and fungi, where the fibres are able to keep minerals and moist creating a hummus rich and living soil. This is a nature inclusive sheet material that has a function for both people and nature.

In the research of fibres, Rik Makes noticed the immense amounts of readily available chips from crop waste. Now burned or landfilled but potentially to be transformed to Compostboard. So they only use left-over streams of nearby agricultural landscape. Creating a opportunity to mass-consume sheet material without harm. As the amounts of chips are so big, there is the potential to build a production plant that can produce sheets for a price that can be purchased in a wide range of society.

Every agricultural landscape has its proud qualities. Most people know what is cultivated nearby and have or had roots in nearby cultivation. This creates a bond with a place and by using local waste we are able to strengthen that proudness. Showing unique aesthetics marking the quality of a place.

With the possibilities to create unique aesthetics, think about the lavender in France, or the tulips in The Netherlands, people can surround themselves with personal materials in their working or living environment. By having this bond with a material or product people are less eager to throw away products.

Next to that there is off course the quality of local production is the small amount of pollution coming from transportation cycles.

In the future when Compostboard is implemented in society the usage of chips gives another quality of including nature, it can put a limit to the current situation of infinite consumption of goods. The product has a seasonal limit, yearly there is a maximum amount of crops harvested in each local landscape. By using that waste we renew the idea of mass-consumption. And connect the behaviour of a consumer to seasons, harvests and local landscape.

The material is functional in interiors. When kept outside, in the rain or soil, the material decomposes, enriching the soil with fibres and starch.

The material is currently available in sheets 80 x 50 cm. Compostboard is rather comparable with wood, the production possibilities are rather similar as is the way the material acts as interior product.