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Mieke Meijer converts newspaper into wood

newspaper wood mieke meijer naz7u 40774 1

Have anyone ever thought that a large number of trees are cut only for making newspapers and every day piles of those news papers, which were made by taking away the life of many of the trees, are discarded and recycled to new paper. Recycling, not being an easy process, involves a tremendous amount of energy as well as resources to collect, sort and process this waste. Mieke Meijer, a Dutch designer, has come up with the idea of upcycling this surplus of paper into a new material. Newspaper wood or Kranthout in Dutch language was the name given to the new material which resembled the aesthetics of real wood. The material can be cut, milled, sanded and generally treated like any other type of wood.

The eco soldier:

Mieke Meijer, a Dutch designer has forged a clever way to re-use newspapers. After she graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2006, she started to work on her own commissioned projects in her workshop in Eindhoven, Netherlands. A design firm Vij5 recognized her work and introduced this newspaper wood in the lifestyle world by creating many beautiful furniture pieces.

The arena:

Mieke Miejer of Mieke dingen working in collaboration with a design firm Vij5 founded by the young Dutch designers and entrepreneurs Arjan van Raadshooven and Anieke Branderhorst, work in their Design Academy at Eindhoven Area, Netherlands. The newspaper wood was implemented to create various fantastic furniture items which were showcased at Ventura Lambrate during Milan Design Week 2011.

The eco effort:

Upcycling is eventually becoming popular amongst eco-living people. One can define upcycling as making something out of the waste which has equal or greater use. One may also call it as a greener way of recycling. This upcycling process gives new life to what some consider recyclable waste. Taking that thing in mind MIeke Meijer came up with the idea of compressing newspaper, which is a discarded object and given up for recycling, and turning that into wood to create furniture items. Mieke started to glue the individual papers and then rolled them tightly together by making use of a special machine to produce tabloid sized ‘logs’. These logs replicated real wood and can be thus drilled, cut, milled to planks and even sanded. This NewspaperWood can also be described as series of layers of paper that appear like grains of wood or rings from a tree. Beautiful furniture pieces and jewellery are created out of this new material and is appreciated worldwide. Mieke has poured life to the otherwise discarded news papers.

Products made up of newspaper wood:

Vij5 is a design firm that have introduced Meike’s news paper wood to the world in Milan Design Week 2011. Various Dutch designers were invited to experiment with ‘kranthout’ or news paper wood. The team of designer consisted of rENs, Breg Hanssen, Greetje van Tiem, Ontwerpduo,Floris Hovers, Christian Kocx & Tessa Kuyvenhoven. They have worked to produce elegant furniture and jewellery collection made out of newspaper wood.

Furniture line by Vij5:

• “Cabinet” has newspaper wood planks on a solid steel frame. It comes with a choice of colours.
• “Stool” by Tessa employs a woodturning technique and the year rings at the center mimics the real wood.

Jewellery by rENs:

• “Kranthout jewellery” by rENs was extraordinary. at the base of the jewel the date of the newspaper out of which the piece was made of was also given

The impact:

Upcycling newspaper has taken a tremendous effort of the designer but at last she was successful into transforming the newspaper into useful newspaper wood to create furniture and other objects. Mieke’s creativity has blown life into the abundant newspaper piles which were dumped. This wood will create the furniture pieces which were to be built by taking away the life of many trees. The already dead trees which were killed to make newspaper again live as furniture piece at your house.

Via: yatzer

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