Hand in your CDs for processing into design furniture
The circular chain project No CD to Waste aims to breathe new life into old CDs by processing the waste plastic into design furniture. No CD to Waste is a collaboration between thrift shop Emmaus De Bilt , circular companies vanPlestik , The Good Plastic Company and sustainable office designer Cantor . Their common goal is to turn plastic waste that is still thrown away and incinerated into a new, valuable product. Searious Business , as process supervisor, supports the project partners in the upcycling of old CDs into new furniture. 'One man's waste is another man's treasure' , isn't it!?
Circular CDs
Thrift stores are the heart of the circular economy. Reselling used products is the simplest form of reuse. However, there is no great demand for CDs anymore as more and more people listen to their music online. As a result, Emmaus' thrift shops throw away about 30,000 kilos of CDs every year. Unfortunately, this plastic is not yet properly recycled as standard and these CDs therefore mainly end up in incinerators.
There are still millions of CDs in attics and cellars waiting for useful processing of this material. What would it be like if we could collect all these CDs and reuse this material? In this way we contribute even further to the circular economy.
From waste to new product
CDs that are no longer for sale will be collected and segregated by Emmaus thrift shops. For example, the CDs themselves (made of polycarbonate) can be processed separately from the covers made of polystyrene. Both these waste streams will be processed by vanPlestik and The Good Plastic Company into new, valuable products. vanPlestik has developed a unique 3D printer that uses plastic waste as a raw material to make high-quality new products, such as chairs and lamps. They work together with The Good Plastic Company, which makes sheet material from plastic waste. Finally, sustainable office furnisher Cantor brings essential market knowledge to ensure that the end product matches the wishes of the end user.
Willemijn Peeters of Searious Business explains it again: “The great thing about this project is that everyone can participate. We all have old CDs that we no longer use. Now everyone has a chance to turn an old product into something for the future. The possibilities are endless."
Collect, but don't separate
We call on everyone to return old CDs to the nearest Emmaus branch before September 30, 2021. We do ask that the CDs are not separated from the boxes yet, so that the CDs that are still in demand can be sold again. For the No CD to Waste test phase , the project partners have set themselves the target of collecting 100,000 CDs. So it's high time to say goodbye to your CDs!