The simple act of throwing paper into a bin became the inspiration for Nikolas Gregory Studio’s Scrap Stool. The New York-based art and design studio approached paper companies and asked that their employees throw away scrap paper into trash cans that had been filled with slow drying glue – the result was an upcycled stool made of repurposed paper waste.
Not only is the stool another use for paper waste, it also requires little to no production cost. “By discarding their paper waste into our trashcans, the employees ended up creating furniture for us! Without changing their routine, we transformed the workers from being wasteful into furniture makers….who vigorously recycled,” says the studio.
Scrap Stool has inspired the design team to start thinking about other products that could be created the same way, and the potential of reusing waste in design and manufacturing.
