Clothes Reborn as Furniture? The Innovative "PANECO" Reducing Fashion Waste for a Sustainable Future

With words like sustainability and SDGs becoming mainstream, many people are now conscious about eco-friendly initiatives. One of the major issues we face today, "fashion waste," has garnered attention for innovative solutions. One such solution is the textile upcycling board PANECO, made from discarded clothing fibers.
 
Recently, UNITED ARROWS Ltd. announced the creation of stools made from PANECO as part of their sustainability activities, "SARROWS." These stools will be installed at 16 GREEN LABEL RELAXING stores, showcasing large corporations' commitment to sustainability.
 
This time, we interviewed Kazuhiro Hara, CEO of WORKSTUDIO CORPORATION, the developer of PANECO, to discuss the unique aspects of this material and the company's environmental initiatives.

Furniture Company Develops Sustainable Fixtures from Discarded Clothing

PANECO is a sustainable "textile upcycling board" made from discarded clothing and manufacturing offcuts, which are recycled into hard, easily processable, and aesthetically pleasing boards. These boards are reused in various products like store fixtures and office furniture. We delved into how PANECO came to be and the material it's made from.
 
"Our company was founded in 1998, and we've since been involved in designing and manufacturing store display fixtures. We came up with the idea of creating fixtures from discarded clothing based on various client requests, which led to the development of PANECO.
 
"However, as we weren't recycling experts or material developers, it was a challenging process. Through trial and error, we figured that, like wood fibers used in particle boards, clothing fibers could also be compacted. This idea eventually led to the successful creation of the product."

Development began in 2019, and sales started in 2021. Named "PANECO" from combining the words "panel" and "eco," this material gained attention for its innovative use of discarded clothing, leading to its 2022 Good Design Award.
 
"The toughest part of recycling is sorting. Clothing fibers can be natural or synthetic, and conventional recycling requires detailed classification. But with PANECO, there's no need to sort materials or colors. This results in unique, visually appealing boards depending on the raw materials used."

Generally, recycled products get attention mainly for their recycling technology, and often the appearance of the finished product is not given much focus. However, because they are recycling fashion items, WORKSTUDIO places a strong emphasis on creating beautiful things.

If This Technology Spreads, Discarded Clothing Around the World Can Be Recycled Locally

PANECO's manufacturing process is also quite unique. Clothes collected from companies and other sources are first gathered at partnered welfare facilities where people with disabilities remove buttons and zippers. Afterward, the materials are shredded in a crushing plant and pressed into PANECO at a pressing plant.
 
Such decentralized production stages are a strength for PANECO.
 
"Because the manufacturing process is divided, it does not require huge equipment or facilities; we can use existing infrastructure to create products. Thus, the technology we have established (the PANECO molding technology is currently under international patent application) can be spread around the globe as is. This way, without large capital investments, discarded clothing in each country and region can be locally recycled into resources."