From waste to worktop

Recycled materials are sole ingredient in new kitchen

There are 2,400 post-consumer vending machine coffee cups in each metre of worktop, and 700 used yoghurt pots in each cupboard door. It’s Britain’s first fully recycled kitchen, it costs £7,500, and it’s proving quite a hit for Ilkley-based Milestone Design.

Since the company’s show kitchen was first displayed in November, “demand has been amazing”, director Julian Richards told Green Futures. They’ve already done two complete domestic kitchens and six refurbishments, with a further 17 projects in the pipeline.

Richards sees this as an important step in closing the loop in kitchen recycling, using waste products sourced entirely within the UK – and making something really big out of them, not just the more familiar small items like glasses, bowls and coasters. “Every home in the land has a kitchen,” he says, “so imagine the phenomenal impact it would have on our waste problem if every one was made from recycled materials. We need to get the message across to local government and councils to stop exporting waste for recycling. Keep it here and let’s reprocess it for our own use. This, in turn, will provide businesses like ours with much better material availability and encourage more people to do what we’re doing.”

He would not say that the recycled route was “better” than building a kitchen from sustainably grown timber (certified by the Forest Stewardship Council), but Richards does reckon that “the energy required to rework waste products into a new form is up to 60% lower”. – Jamie Smith

11 March 2007

Jamie Smith