More Circular is the perfect example of a circular economy project, whose principles of reuse, remake, and restore rival the principles governing the current linear economy, which are based on take, make, and discard. Their mission is to develop and market products that transform waste into valuable pieces for your home. Raw materials as the cornerstone: Construction results in a large amount of leftover materials. Most of these are lost in landfills or incinerated; however, gypsum can be endlessly recycled through a process called calcination. At More Circular, they have developed a process to remove gypsum from the waste stream and restore its value. Local gypsum workers supply the surplus gypsum (which also saves them disposal costs), which is then processed in their small factory and becomes the raw material for the wonderful collection of lamps created by More Circular.
Eco-designer Marten van Leeuwen was born in the Netherlands and grew up in beautiful Coromandel, on New Zealand's North Island. After returning to Europe and working various mechanical engineering jobs, he ended up in Amsterdam working at a waste-to-energy plant for four years. The constant coming and going of trucks bringing waste from the city inspired him to find new ways to move away from our linear society. Putting his engineering skills to good use and with the environment always in mind, he began creating his first designs, and thus More Circular was born!