Stylecraft, Arper, PaperShell and Polestar come together for a talk series

An Exploration into Recycled and Biomaterials and the Creation of a Circular Economy.

green magazine joined Stylecraft for a series of talks in Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne to celebrate the launch of Catifa Carta and green magazine issue 102. Hosted by Tamsin O’Neill, editor of green magazine, with a panel consisting of Andrea Rossetto from Arper, Anders Breitholtz from PaperShell, Laurissa Mirrabelli (Brisbane) and Jonathan Williams (Adelaide and Melbourne) from Polestar .

The topic: An Exploration into Recycled and Biomaterials and the Creation of a Circular Economy.

The discussion centred around the genesis of PaperShell, the production of Arper’s Catifa Carta using PaperShell and the movement away from a linear economy to a circular economy in the design industry.

PaperShell is made by pressing kraft paper into load-bearing fossil-carbon free components. It’s designed to replace carbon-intensive, non-renewable materials like aluminum, plastic, and fibre composites (GFRP). By substituting fossil based materials to PaperShell, CO₂e emissions are reduced by up to 98%, carbon negative if circulated. At the end of their lifecycle, PaperShell components can be transformed into biochar through pyrolysis – a thermal decomposition process that breaks down organic materials at high temperatures in an oxygen-limited environment. This effectively locks the carbon content of PaperShell components into high quality biochar.

Polestar added insight to the topic, sharing the depth of their research and application of bio-materials and recycled materials in the design and production of their cars, with the aim to create a closed loop system.