Scandinavian office chair, made from 50 percent recycled materials, wins Best Product award

Scandinavian Business Seating of Oslo, Norway, has been named the winner of the European Best Recycled Plastic Product 2015 awards, for its HÅG Capisco office chair.

The competition was part of the Identiplast Congress held April 29 in Rome, and was backed by the Brussels-based European Association of Plastics Recycling and Recovery Organisations (EPRO) and supporting organisations.

The second-place award went to Germany’s PAV Recyclate GmbH & Co KG for its Railway Plastic Tie.

Also recognised was the Eco Potagator, an ecological growing pot made from postconsumer packaging, manufactured by U.K.-based ashortwalk Ltd.

Atle Thiis-Messel of Scandinavian Business Seating states, “The HÅG Capisco chair is our bestseller with sales of 46,000 chairs per year. It is made of 50 percent recycled materials and the plastic parts are manufactured from 100 percent recycled PP (polypropylene). It has also been designed to be dismantled easily making it easy to separate the different parts and materials for repair or recycling.”

EPRO Co-chairman Francis Huysman explains, “Plastic packaging design, improved collection schemes, advances in sorting technology together with a greater range of reprocessing opportunities and applications mean that the need to send many plastics to landfill is gradually decreasing. EPRO believes that one of the most important ways of achieving increased recycling is to raise the awareness of the products made from recycled plastics packaging, and by doing so, promoting the use of recyclates and the cycle of plastics. The HÅG Capisco chair is—besides the fact that it is made out of recycled materials—a good example of a product in a circular economy model.”

Ashortwalk, a member of the U.K.-based organization RECOUP, produced the third-place entry, the Eco-Potagator. The design incorporates both a propagator to support seedlings in the early stages of growth and transforms into a plant pot when it outgrows the propagator. The pots are designed to be reusable and long-lasting therefore reducing waste. The product is made from 100 percent yogurt containers and recycled CD cases.

All 22 entries, including 12 from the U.K., have shown a variety of viable applications for recycled plastics. RECOUP CEO Stuart Foster says, “Since 2009, the competition has seen nearly 180 entries from 25 countries and witnessed an increased range of applications for recycled plastic. Increasing demand for recycled materials is critical to the success of plastic recycling, and by supporting these awards it is hoped that the potential is further demonstrated to all plastic product manufacturers. We are also really pleased to see a strong showing from U.K. companies for the second year running, and congratulations to ashortwalk for their fantastic Ecopotagator product.”

RECOUP is sponsoring the U.K. Best Recycled Plastic Product Award at the Plastics Industry Awards 2015, which is currently open for entries. The winner will be presented with the award at the London Hilton on Park Lane on Friday 9th October. Comedian, actor and writer Alan Davies will present the awards.

More information about the competition, including entry details, is available at www.plasticsawards.com. Deadline for entries is May 29.