Swedish studio Malmö Upcycling Service has repurposed waste material from six different industries to create a range of decorative home objects, launched at this year's DesignMarch festival in Iceland.
Malmö Upcycling Service's Odds & Ends collection uses recycled materials from Swedish brick, glass, acrylic, stone, and sheet metal manufacturers to create 11 household objects and decorative accessories, ranging from a coffee table to a circular mirror.
Presented at DesignMarch, which took place in Reykjavík between 15 and 18 March 2018, the collection was part of a broader exhibition exploring the use of waste materials in the making of new objects.
Through their collection, the designers wanted to change peoples' perception of waste so that it is seen as a resource as opposed to a byproduct. All the products, therefore, were made so that each piece could be easily separated again for reuse or recycling.
"The initiative aims at generating new ideas about how to shape and produce in a more sustainable manner as well as create the conditions for circular manufacturing," said Anna Gudmundsdottir, co-founder of Malmö Upcycling Service. "We continuously visit local manufacturers to find what waste is left over when they produce other products."
"Often it takes a lot of energy to produce the material itself and when its thrown away without having had the chance to be a product, we feel that it's the most wasteful way to use this planet's resources," she continued.
The first item in the collection is a bowl made of laboratory glass with an acrylic glass stand. Inside the stand are pieces of discarded brick.
The second piece is a standing mirror made of polished stainless steel and acrylic. It is supported by a semi-circular stand in grey and has visible bolts.
Another item is a vase which features a narrow glass container and is held by a two-tiered structure made of composite stone. There is also a circular piece of laboratory glass and acrylic intended to give the product a geometric appearance.
A hand-held mirror has a circular, stainless steel surface and a composite stone handle in the shape of a ring, while a series of vases feature disused laboratory glasses.
The designers also created a tray from glass off-cuts and mirror pieces, a picture frame with a rectangular glass panel and a metal chain, and a range of coat hooks made from perforated sheet metal.
Malmö Upcycling Service was formed by industrial designers Emilia Borgvall, Britt Jönsson, Anna Gudmundsdottir and Pauline Matika after they graduated from Lund University in Sweden.
DesignMarch ran from 15 to 18 March 2018 in Reykjavík, Iceland. Other projects on show at the festival included burgers made of mealworms and algae by IKEA's research lab Space 10.
Photography by David Möller.