More with less: how Emeco are embracing recycled materials

In recent years, the push towards sustainability in design has become increasingly hard to ignore. More and more, companies are taking major steps to rethink their processes and reuse products that might have previously been discarded. For American brand Emeco, this relationship with recycled materials is an intrinsic part of their DNA.

Back in 1944, Emeco was commissioned by the government to create a chair to be used on naval warships. The requirement was that is was built for a life at sea - able to not only withstand the effects of salt air and water, but the occasional blast from a torpedo.

To do this, they turned to a material that was widely available at the time - salvaged aluminium. From there, Emeco developed their 77 step process, involving welding, grinding and anodizing the metal to take it from soft and pliable to rock-hard and resilient. Salvaged aluminium is an incredibly versatile material because it has the ability to be endlessly reshaped and repurposed. Its toughness means that even that produced in the late 1800s is still in use today; in electronics, kitchenware, and of course, in Emeco’s chairs.

And so the seed was planted - what more could be made from recycled materials? Over time, the company made its mission to find new ways of recovering and utilising waste. Now, over 70 years later, the vast majority of Emeco’s designs started life as something else.

Take the 1 Inch family, conceived by ‘supernormal’ designer Jasper Morrison. Comprising three collections, each uses recycled materials in a unique and innovative way.

The 1 Inch Reclaimed Chair uses a unique material that is 90% reclaimed. This composite is 88% unwanted waste polypropylene sourced from plastics factories, blended with 2% waste wood fibre from the woodworking industry.

Emeco takes leftover material that would normally end up on the workshop floor and gives it a new lease of life. The composite results in a more natural touch than the raw material; a long-lasting synthetic with the warm spirit of wood.

The 1 Inch Stacking Chair combines this composite with a recycled metal frame, tapping into the brand’s heritage while adhering to Morrison’s design sensibilities. While the overall look is understated and simple, the manufacturing process is a complex one, requiring months of experimentation and countless revisions. Emeco’s dedication to the material meant that they had to push it to its limits.

The final chair of the collection, the All Aluminium range, takes Emeco back to their roots with salvaged and fortified metal. With the same signature strength as the original Navy Chair, it is a lightweight, durable and highly versatile piece. Together, the 1 Inch family embodies Emeco’s longstanding design ethos - strong, sustainable and engineered to last.

But their work towards sustainability doesn’t end there. Today, plastic is often cited as the main offender when it comes to contributing to the vast amount of industry waste. It’s commonplace, it’s abundant, and it can take up to 1000 years to break down. By using recycled plastic bottles in their designs, Emeco have single-handedly kept more than 30 million bottles from ending up in landfill. From plastic to wood, to concrete to cork, sustainability is key to every material decision they make.

Yet curiously, for a brand that uses largely salvaged materials, their ultimate goal is to make recycling obsolete. Instead, they want to make fewer products, built to be around even longer than we are. The process isn’t an easy one - but they’re certainly up for the challenge.

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