Here's the original article

Product designers and manufacturers are always striving to create something unprecedented, materials the industry hasn’t seen before or products that provide sustainable alternatives to others already manifest. Representing inventors, manufacturers and designers from across the globe, we roundup ten impressive innovations that have captured our imaginations, from BioFluff chairs designed for compostability to contract furniture comprising compressed single-use chopsticks.

Pit-board by Pit-To-Table

Cyprus-based brand Pit-To-Table transforms discarded olive pits into tabletops and panels for commercial use. Offering a solution to the vast amount of discarded olive pits across the island, the budding start-up began crafting bio-panels by name of Pit-board to repurpose this commonplace organic matter while providing a tactile alternative to traditional surfaces.

Like the island’s time-honoured olive oil producers, Pit-To-Table adapts and reconfigures its recipe for each batch of waste material it repurposes, rendering every sheet of Pit-board truly unique with its inconsistencies and colouration. Suitable for a broad range of industries – ranging from display counters and plinths in retail spaces to storage units within workplace settings – Pit-board is a versatile, sustainable solution, emanating from circular supply chains from pit-procurement to product.

This product first featured in issue #238 of Mix Interiors.

Recycled glass terrazzo by RESILICA

In 1997, businesses stockpiling glass had become a widespread problem, mainly due to a new landfill tax making it too costly to dispose of surplus to requirement waste. Sensing a need for a solution, a group of Sheffield Hallam University researchers set to work developing a product that could resolve the ever-growing issue. Four years later, and bolstered with a wealth of knowledge, the team set up shop in a small, shared workshop in the back streets of Hackney, hand-pouring what would become the UK’s first recycled glass surfacing material.

Fast forward 20 years, RESILICA is now made to order and handcrafted at a glass recycling plant in Hastings, East Sussex, and consists of approximately 85% recycled glass bonded together with a bespoke polymer system. A significantly more sustainable alternative to traditional stone, the final product is VOC-free, stain-resistant, non-porous and contains zero respirable crystalline silica, reducing the health risks associated with the fabrication and installation of quartz and other engineered stone surfaces.

This product first featured in issue #237 of Mix Interiors.

Stone Waste is Bliss by Ignorance is Bliss

Headed by Agne Kucerenkaite, Ignorance is Bliss is an on-going, experimental design project, tackling industrial waste by creating aspirational products for interior and exterior use. A tile collection with a conscience, Stone Waste is Bliss converts discarded stone materials such as granite, quartzite, limestone and travertine into innovative ceramic surfaces, reducing the demand for quarrying, landfill waste or the use chemicals which pollute our waterways.

Throughout, natural iron fragments in granite bleed into delicate, flower-like patterns due to the firing process, removing the need for artificial pigments, while its high-temperature resistance ensures strong adhesion without the use of harmful glues or binding agents. The technique also enables integrated three-dimensional features, offering a visually distinctive solution for a wide range of architectural applications.

This product was Mix Awards 2025 finalist for surfaces.

The Earth Collection by Smile Plastics

Winner of the Surfaces category in this year’s Mix Awards, Smile Plastics’ Earth Collection recently introduced five new materials – Aber, Flint, Marlais, Moss and Seastone – made entirely from 100% recycled and recyclable plastic packaging. The brand continues to spread its promotion of waste reduction and re-establishing a connection to the Earth, while exemplifying how high design can live in congruence with sustainable design innovation.

Expanding on the existing Earth Collection range (launched in 2024 for Smile Plastics’ 30th anniversary), each material offers a unique aesthetic: Aber with its navy-blue base with sand-like swirls, Flint a bold true black finish and Marlais soft blue tones with an organic grain. Moss calls to mind images of misty forests with its vibrant greens and golden flecks, where the veined blue-greenish effect of Seastone is reminiscent of storm-weathered beach pebbles.

This product was Mix Awards 2025 winner for surfaces.

Recycled Leather Series by Karta

Unveiling 18 versatile designs, Karta’s Recycled Leather Series demonstrates the company-wide rethinking of material sources to ensure a sustainable future for contract flooring. Repurposed from the footwear industry, the collection is constructed using leather offcuts which are printed with a high-definition woodgrain using biodegradable ink, transforming the fabric remnants into high-performance, visually striking floorboards.

Comprising just five essential components, beneath the surface of each leather-based board sits a durable layer of biodegradable wood composed entirely of PEFC-certified natural fibres and resin, ensuring both strength and environmental responsibility in equal measure. Below, a cork backing adds additional comfort and acoustic benefits, while an additional stabilising wood fibre layer increases underfoot stability. To finish, each plank is doused in Karta Plated – a specially developed water-resistant barrier that provides an AC5-rated topcoat with a refined super matte finish.

This product was a Mix Awards North 2024 finalist for flooring.

IKI carbon by Elementic

When we talk about embodied carbon, we’re referring to the greenhouse gases associated with a construction material’s supply chain, manufacture and installation – that is to say, emitted into the atmosphere for the sake of ‘newness.’ But what if a material actually embodied as much CO2 as possible, sequestered the maximum amount of the compound in the production process and contained it inside its mass for generations to come? Nordic design powerhouse Elementic have developed a building constituent to do just that.

IKI Carbon is the first-of-its-kind bio-based material made from pure carbon, utilising abandoned logs and post-consumer timbers to make bricks, blocks, panels and walls fit for commercial use. Continuing the spontaneous work of forests, for IKI Carbon, Elementic locks CO2 in at the source, using multi-patented technology devised by in-house biochar experts to extend the natural carbon reserves of timber. Furthermore, for every 1 kg of the material, approximately 3 kg of atmospheric CO2 is stored, contributing to the sustainability credentials of carbon negative construction projects.

This product first featured in issue #238 of Mix Interiors.

ChopValue

Proudly donning the tagline ‘once a chopstick, now a statement’, Vancouver-based furniture makers ChopValue transform single-use chopsticks into bespoke FF&E for hospitality and workplace settings, not only representing responsible manufacturing but negating the need to fell trees to make new products.

On a mission to reframe what we call ‘waste’ as a precious ‘resource’, the company operates from local micro-factories to create climate positive tables, seating, wall panels and accessories which are stronger and more long-lasting than the properties found in solid wood. Thanks to their innovative layering and laminating process of hundreds of wooden utensils, ChopValue’s products are made to last, ensuring truly unique design that will stand the test of time.

This brand first featured in issue #234 of Mix Interiors.

Mirrl

During a trip to Japan some fifteen years ago, Mirrl Co-founder Simon Harlow came across heirloom objects decorated with an exquisite pattern – their surface textures creating visual effects that could be likened to lichen formations or bacterial cultures. Upon research, he discovered that the decorative style had 600-year-old origins and was achieved through a technique called Tsugaru Nuri.

Together with Glasgow School of Art peer and fellow Co-founder, Lewis Harley, the duo appropriated the Japanese lacquer technique – using resin and colour pigments on a poplar plywood substrate –  to form the basis of the Glasgow-based surface design studio Mirrl as it is known as today. Made to order and available in custom-made colourways, all Mirrl products are ultra-pliable and easy to work with, meaning they can be cut and jointed seamlessly for uninterrupted surfaces that are both tactile and visually intriguing.

This brand first featured in issue #232 of Mix Interiors.

Lacrimosa by LumiAdd

Another champion of Mix Awards 2025, this time for the lighting category, LumiAdd’s  Lacrimosa (Latin for ‘weeping’) is an asymmetric luminaire characterised by its teardrop pendant and innovate material usage. With a discreet light source tucked inside – delivering up to 121 luminaire lumens per circuit watt – the fixture’s organic body is created from waste coffee grounds, chocolate, brewery grains and shells from the food industry, which are mixed together to form a durable and recyclable plant-based polymer.

Pushing the envelope further, LumiAdd configured a unique 3D FDM printing method that uses an entirely non-linear path, defying conventional technique where layers are stacked flat and, therefore, create visible seams in the final product. In the making of Lacrimosa, the print head moves continuously across all three axes – creating a sculptural flowing form which casts a lightly-textured glow when illuminated.

This product was Mix Awards 2025 winner for lighting.

Aifunghi

Debuting for the first time at 3daysofdesign, Aifunghi (Italian for ‘with mushrooms’) is the mycelium-based brainchild of husband-and-wife team, Marije and Bart Schilder. Showcasing ten distinctive furniture pieces – comprising seating, tables, lighting and upholstered furniture – Aifunghi utilises pioneering material composites to deliver durable, recyclable and 100% compostable FF&E. Through a combination of hemp fibres with the natural binding power of mycelium, this revolutionary material moves beyond being a sustainable alternative, offering an impressive smorgasbord of tactility for the luxury sector.

In collaboration with other material innovators, Savian by BioFluff has contributed its natural, plant-based alternative to make the ‘fur’-upholstered Porcini chair, where a groundbreaking seaweed foam from Agoprene delivers comfort in the form of an oil-free, biodegradable and low-carbon stuffing.

For more product innovation and inspiration, explore nine innovative, sustainable materials shaping the future of design here.