The project to turn waste into a flowerpot started in 2018, when Emma Wisse started her graduation project at TU Delft at Midwaste/RKN.

Midwaste is a cooperative association of cleaning and waste companies that directs the processing of waste flows as circularly as possible. RKN is responsible for the plastic household packaging waste. With this project, Emma was looking for a new application for residual plastic packaging materials. This is a residual flow that remains after all reusable plastic has been sorted. The application possibilities for this waste stream are limited, but by processing it with rotational moulding, a lot of new and different application possibilities arise that were not conceivable until now.

As a result, more new and valuable products can be made in the future. At the time, no other manufacturer was known who could process these residual materials into new products using this processing technique. Proudly we can now present the result of these efforts, i.e. the Flowerpot Orchid 900. This is a first step towards the multiple reuse of residual material as a raw material in rotational moulding. In this way we turn single use plastics into sustainable and beautiful creations that last as long as our traditional flowerpots. For this project the collaboration with Zweva Engineering was indispensable. Zweva Engineering is a pioneer in the development of structural plastics.

Production process

Of course a lot of steps are needed to turn our plastic packaging waste into the beautiful and functional Flowerpot. First we collect the plastic waste, after which it goes to a sorting plant. There the different types of plastic are taken apart as good as possible. At this moment, however, it is not yet possible to separate all the components from each other. This leaves a mix of plastics that is further cleaned in a recycling factory and processed into new granules. The agglomerate obtained in this way is mixed with our own production waste and ground into powder. This powder eventually forms the raw material to manufacture our products. Because of this beautiful cooperation between different links in the chain, we are yet a step closer to a circular economy and a world without waste.