Waste Ware

Matthijs Vogels is an industrial designer who founded Studio Vogels in 2014 on a philosophy of patching the holes in the product design process and bringing useful and creative products to consumers and industry. Vogels operates from the perspective of telling a positive social story.

As an independent designer in 2010, Vogels looked to coffee waste as a canvas for a new material. He took the coffee residue left over from the roasting process of major Dutch coffee roasters and cleaned and heat-pressed it. The resin released in the pressing process is a natural binder; the result is a durable, fully biodegradable Bakelite-like material. The line of kitchenware – storage boxes that smell pleasantly of coffee – made from the material, which Vogels dubbed Waste Ware, can be composted at the end of their usable life.