Think green: a sustainable revolution by Pedrali
Sustainable design is the ultimate purpose of every activity aimed at reducing our impact on the environment. Designing with nature is about minimising the negative impact of the design process and generating high quality products that are able to withstand the test of time, in terms of style and performance, while putting the health and comfort of people first.
In line with this philosophy, Pedrali has launched its first collections made entirely from recycled plastic material. This extraordinary revolution has enabled the 100% Made in Italy company to achieve yet another important milestone in its quest for environmental sustainability: a new material made 50% from plastic material post-consumer waste and 50% from plastic material industrial waste.
Plastic material post-consumer waste comes from products that have been used and then duly recycled by consumers, such as plastic bottles or food packaging. As for the use of plastic material industrial waste, this is not new to Pedrali, which has always reintegrated part of its own industrial waste back into the production process. The industrial element of the company’s new 100% recycled material comes from plastic waste, containers and films.
“This blend allows us to manufacture high quality green products with excellent mechanical performance. Obtaining 50% of this material from post-consumer waste means selecting, sorting and recovering a material that would otherwise be discarded. Instead, by conducting precise tests and analyses, we can create the ideal raw material for use in furniture,” explains the company’s joint CEO, Giuseppe Pedrali founded in 1963 by his father Mario. Pedrali currently exports to more than 100 countries worldwide and its furniture nurtures deep-rooted values such as respect for tradition, a pioneering approach to innovation, and the continual pursuit of beauty.
Pedrali has identified 50% of post-consumer waste as the ideal blend to guarantee high quality products featuring the high resistance and durability levels required of contract furniture, given its substantial and prolonged use.
To ensure these properties, the furniture made from the new 100% recycled material is subjected to resistance tests to prove they can withstand prolonged exposure to light and temperatures between +50°C and -10°C without effects. Moreover, the furniture’s antistatic finishes are easy to clean, to maintain, and - more importantly, given the ongoing pandemic - to sanitise and disinfect.
All the products made from this new sustainable material share a characteristic grey hue, a neutral colour chosen to even out and conceal any imperfections typical of recycled materials. Given the name of “recycled grey”, the products are marked with the pad-printed inscription “100% recycled”, to emphasize their eco-friendliness.
One of the two new products made from this new material is the Remind “recycled grey” chair, designed by Eugeni Quitllet. Drawing on the soft, sinuous curves of the wooden chairs of the late 19th century, reinterpreted in an innovative key, Remind’s sensual and romantic design has a completely new feel about it. Made from a monoblock of injection-moulded polypropylene, the transpiring seat and backrest contribute to the chair’s airy, lightweight appearance, as well as to its embracing comfort. Functional, versatile and relatively small, this chair is suitable for both outdoor and indoor use thanks to the combination of harmonious lines and a lightweight yet sturdy material.
Odo Fioravanti, instead, has created a “recycled grey” version of his Babila XL armchair. The inspiration behind Babila XL, the latest addition to Babila family, remains the alternating rational, straight lines with curves which create a link between the artificial world of industrial products and the natural, sinuous world of the human body.
Designed to offer greater seating comfort, the Babila XL armchair has a polypropylene shell that stands out for the large dimension of its seat and armrests.
The designers, right from the design phase, think about the possibility to develop a series of products marked by enveloping comfort and an optimised use of resources. Plastic seats for the contract industry must be light and easy to move, and yet extremely resistant. This can be achieved by creating empty volumes using air moulding technology, as in the case of the Remind chair. The Babila armchair, instead, features polypropylene in various thicknesses, determined by the studies and tests carried out by Pedrali in collaboration with Odo Fioravanti. Finally, combining a plastic body with legs in a different material such as wood or metal, helps to ensure a high quality performance and likewise Pedrali is renowned for combining different materials, particularly metal, plastic material, wood and upholstery.
The 100% recycled body of the new Babila XL “recycled grey” may be fitted with wooden legs, making it a 100% green product.
