(Archive) Frumo

Non-repairable material compositions

Furniture design often uses non-repairable material compositions and plastics, such as plastic-sheathed wood-based panels in fast furniture. These consume fossil resources, generate hazardous waste and leave environmental damage.
Contrary to what is often declared, these wood-based panels do not consist of wood waste from the timber industry; instead, entire forests are cleared due to the mass consumption of fast furniture. The boards are then coated with plastic and thrown away as furniture after only a short time because the coating is irreparably damaged or cannot withstand long-term use. In addition, the boards contain toxins as binding agents that fume out for decades and have a negative impact on our health. This turns the once sustainable raw material wood into hazardous waste. Materials like these cannot be repaired, which is why they are only burned after use.
So what is needed is a sustainable and easily repairable material made from natural raw materials. Natural raw materials like food waste.

For others food waste is a problem, for me it is an opportunity.

We live in a world of food waste and resource scarcity, so why not give food waste as a resource a new use? Every year, 3.1 billion tonnes of apple juice are produced in Germany alone, and with it rapidly fermenting by-products that are only recycled in biogas plants and that cidery owners have to pay to dispose of.
For Frumo, apple cider is used to enable regional production. This can save emissions and strengthen local cideries with a side income. In principle, however, any biological waste can be used for the production of Frumo.
At the same time, natural resin, which is a wound secretion of the tree and is obtained through targeted cutting grooves in the trunk without harming the tree, is needed for the production of Frumo. This means that the raw materials are inevitably extracted from living trees, so no trees have to be felled and habitats destroyed. On the contrary, instead of clearing forests, Frumo needs more trees. Trees are living producers of raw materials.

The special properties

Frumo has the special property that it can be moulded under the influence of high heat. This makes it possible to create very complex shapes that cannot be realised with other sustainable materials. In addition, even deep damage can be repaired easily and quickly under the influence of heat by adding some Frumo granulate to the damage and smoothing it under heat. Afterwards, the former damage is no longer visible. Even broken Frumo panels can be rejoined without seams. The only thing that is needed for the repair is a hot air blower or an iron.
This makes Frumo a material that can easily heal itself over and over again.
Moreover, all the Frumo waste that is produced during the manufacture of Frumo products can be recycled by shredding it and turning it into a new Frumo product. This means that even in the manufacturing of products there is no waste and used Frumo products can always be returned to the cycle and reused if they are not composted.