Potato skins recycled as substitutes for MDF boards

The team was shocked by the environmental impact and short lifespan of many readily disposable materials. Chip[s] Board® is a play on the fried potato treat and is an eco-friendly alternative to chip board and MDF made from potato waste. Unlike its resin based counterparts, Chip[s] Board is biodegradable post-use and doesn’t contain formaldehyde or any other toxic resins and chemicals.

Current plastic and particulate board manufacturing requires the use of toxic chemicals, such as known carcinogen urea-formaldehyde, which are extremely damaging to both people and the environment.

These materials are often non-recyclable and create vast amounts of waste, over 1/3 of all MDF produced ends up in landfill or incineration from manufacturing offcuts alone.

The designers  of Chip[s] Board® addresses believe that the circular economy should be the starting point these issues by developing materials made from a natural ‘waste’ product, created with low water use and zero production waste, containing no harmful chemicals or non-biodegradable materials.

They wanted to combine this issue of material waste with the problem of food waste, which sees a third of all food produced ending up in the bin. The result is a sustainable wood substitute made from the waste potato peelings created from industrial food processing.

After collecting the peelings from manufacturers, they put the raw potato peel through various refinement processes to create a binding agent that can be applied to their fibres – which include potato skins, bamboo, recycled wood or beer hops.

They then use this to form the material by heat pressing the composite into a robust sheet of board that can be processed into an array of products, such as furniture and building materials.

Once they have reached the end of their life span, these products can be sent to industrial compost to be biodegraded into fertiliser for use back at a farm where they were originally taken from.