Old transport palette becomes new furniture
At Paletten Winter GmbH from Hof am Leithagebirge used transport pallets are converted into ecologically responsible, cool furniture. Exactly: Keyword "Upcycling"! Therefore we talked to Andrea Winter, who is responsible for the design of the pallet furniture "Made in Austria".
Upcycling (from up "upwards" and recycling "re-use") means that (apparently) used material is converted into new products and thus upgraded and reused. This reduces the consumption of raw materials.
The use of old wooden pallets to create furniture for indoor and outdoor use is becoming increasingly popular: these upcycled furniture items have a unique character. The original material, its "age" and visible signs of use are not denied. On the contrary.
Liberation. The furniture has special surfaces with individual haptics. The imperfect, the deliberately unrepresentative is in focus. Liberated from conventional ideas and hardened thinking habits, the pallet furniture is characterized by a previously unexperienced aesthetic effect. This also happens at Paletten Winter GmbH (www.euro-paletten.at/de/moebel-winter), a family business at Hof am Leithaberge, Lower Austria. Here used pallets are used to create plant shelves, sofas, living room and desk tables, chests of drawers as well as shelves and other furniture.
Truly unique. In 2011 Andrea Winter had the environmentally friendly idea to produce furniture from old pallets. The small internal joinery "Winter Möbel" was founded. 2012 the first catalogue was already published. Andrea Winter emphasizes: "This was and is our contribution to 'getting out of the throwaway society' according to the motto 'from old make new'! Andrea Winter still designs the casual pallet furniture today. But she also builds furnishings according to the buyers' specifications. Four employees are busy with the realization in Hof am Leithaberge. "Every single piece is manufactured in many steps by hand with precision," Andrea Winter explains. "Material" are always used pallets. "This makes each piece of furniture unique due to the different colours and grains of the old pallets. Because every pallet has its own 'history of use'", explains Ms Winter. Only PEFC-certified wood is used in the production and repair of the pallets. "It comes from sustainably managed forests in Austria. The pallets are made of pine, spruce or pine wood. Mainly spruce wood is used."
Upcycling is on the rise in our affluent throwaway society. Andrea Winter can only confirm this trend: "The demand for our pallet furniture has risen continuously in recent years as consumers have become increasingly concerned about environmental protection. Our customers are a motley crew, all generations are represented. Furniture made from old pallets is purchased for the garden as well as for children's rooms. But it also works very well as an individual eye-catcher in restaurants or hotels". Especially in public spaces, pallet furniture is a statement that stimulates reflection on how we use our resources. A company can make its environmentally responsible philosophy visible by equipping its rooms accessible to customers with pallet furniture.
Sustainability plays a major role at Paletten Winter GmbH. "In our company, environmental protection and sustainability have a high priority. This is also how the idea for the Paletten-Möbel was born. Since we reuse discarded pallets and use them to produce a wide variety of furniture with a contemporary design, it was important to us to signal to our customers at first glance that these are environmentally friendly products with the Austrian Eco-Label. Frau Winter adds: "Every day we deal with the subject of recycling. So we are anxious to keep the residual materials as low as possible. The wood is reused, the last remnants are shredded into pallet chips and burned in our own heating system". Then environmental protection plays an important role in your company? "Yes, environmental protection is a high priority for us. Since its foundation in 1999, the Wintergroup has been dealing intensively with the topic of environmental protection. During operation, electricity is produced with a photovoltaic system, rainwater is treated and e-bikes are used for internal transport." And: "As a result of the certification process, we have dealt much more intensively with products that do not contain toxic substances and are therefore more environmentally friendly.
We thank Andrea Winter for the informative conversation and congratulate Paletten Winter GmbH for the certification with the Austrian Eco-Label.