StoneCycling was conceived at the Design Academy in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Then student, Tom van Soest focused on upcycling waste he found in vacant buildings awaiting demolition.
Tom began grinding, crushing, and mixing this waste in his homemade industrial blender and after many, many trials —and even more errors— he found a way to create new materials that were both resilient and appealing.
The process is complicated; with a value chain involving many different companies, each with different goals and ambitions. In everything we do, upcycling, design and craftsmanship play a central role.Debris from construction and demolition is one of the biggest waste streams in the world.
In Europe, it accounts for approximately 30% of all waste generated. In countries like the United States and China, this percentage is even higher. We’re doing continuous research on the availability, quality and quantity of waste that has the potential to be upcycled. In many cases, we do this together with our waste partners, and in some instances this means that we need to improve the quality of the waste.
At the same time, we dig up tonnes of raw material each year and turn it into the building products that make up our cities and infrastructure. Vast excavations often destroy landscapes and ecosystems; and basic raw materials such as construction sand and high-quality clay are becoming increasingly scarce. At StoneCycling, we strive to combine the growing availability of waste with the declining availability of raw materials as our motivation to develop new building materials.
Stone Cycling
Netherlands