Tristan Titeux’s Pioneering Journey to find the most sustainable eco-friendly materials to design and build Custom Carpentry’s bespoke Fitted Furniture.

My journey started in December 2010 when I decided to research and publish my findings of various materials that are available on the European and World market but specially the UK.

I needed an idea for Christmas to write about in a magazine, I wasn’t sure what it would be, so I was thinking Christmas, Christmas trees, trees, wood, MDF is made of Christmas trees I thought, so I just wrote an article about how Christmas trees can be used to make fitted furniture.

MDF wood (Medium Density Fiberboard) is actually a pretty surprisingly sustainable material, if you remove the glue from the equation, especially the formaldehyde, which is nasty, but then current MDF has lower amounts than before. But MDF can be found with totally Zero formaldehyde such as Medite Ecologique and is made of another kind of glue called MDI glue (Methylene Diphenyl Diisocyanate), now time will tell how good this glue is or isn’t. I would hope that someone will come up with an amazing totally natural and harmless glue to our health and environment soon! Please?

Here is the first Eco Materials series I made on YouTube:

Medite also do an exterior grade mdf that uses MDI glue instead of Formaldehyde called Medite Exterior. The good thing about this materials is that is is long lasting because it is waterproof making it more sustainable and useful for a long periods of time as it can be used outdoors without extra chemical wood preservatives.

So glue apart, MDF is made of  waste material not suitable for planks, at Custom Carpentry we use the good quality Medite MDF which is FSC certified (Forest Stewardship Council) and they use sawmill waste off cuts (residue) that are not suitable for making into planks for the construction industry as well as pine and spruce trees that are too small or generally no good for anything else called thinnings. Thinnings are trees that are plucked out to make way for the straighter and more vigorous trees, just the same as you would thin out your carrots and onions once you have seeded them and they have grown a little. I was pleased to discover this as it made me feel that there was something good about MDF and the future potential for it is even greater.

One very important step to is to encourage the technology for recycling MDF, see Trada.co.uk

The next step is to use wood such as mentioned above but also recycled wood from building sites, wood that people bring into municipal recycling centers etc, there is a company called Sonae UK http://sonaeuk.com/03_00_recycling.htm that I found that uses 100% recycled wood such as this in their chipboard materials in their UK factory, but they only make their recycled wood MDF in their Portugal factory, why I have no idea, I will look into that more.

The massive Cometer empties recycled wood chip after being delivered to the factory. This is serious recycling.

Here is another link to wood recycling in the UK    http://www.woodrecyclers.org/recycling.php

Wood recycling association.

There is a new technology that will revolutionise the production of outdoor grade MDF and for that matter, hardwood, and traditional timbers. It uses a production process that is said by the manufacturers to be 100% non toxic and is being developed by www.tricoya.com, it is made using fibres that can be recycled, it is also suitable for outdoor use and hardens the MDF to compete and be even better than many hardwoods, you can read more in this article. (I will let you know when I understand more about this process) I know that the fibres will be acetylated to make them waterproof then they will be bonded together like traditional MDF, so that part won’t be different, but the acetylation will be different and more natural I think than dousing the MDF in waterproofing chemicals.

Acetylation on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetylation

MDF entry in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium-density_fibreboard

Origninal MDF magazine article.

Original Magazine Article from December 2010

To link and work with us or for more information, you can contact us at eco@customcarpentry.co.uk

Follow me @TristanTiteux on Twitter

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About the author

Tristan Titeux
Tristan Titeux is Belgian Contemporary Fitted Furniture Designer with eco sustainability as his passion. He founded Custom Carpentry in 2003 and now has a team of talented crafstmen who build his fitted furniture for private clients in London. He has also designed furniture on various occasions for Westminster Abbey as well as furniture for TV home makeover programs such as "60 Minute Makeover" on ITV and "Homes for the Brave" on SKY. He is knows as a pioneer in his field because he has used eco materials never see in fitted furniture before. He leaves people feeling totally satisfied that they have chosen to contribute towards a positive future for our children by choosing fitted furniture with a conscience.

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3 Comments for The sustainability of MDF wood sheets.

Rabea maskery

I am trying to open one factory in Oman for wood recycling. I am searching for the correct machines and correct equipment if possible. Also what is the land needed for the factory?

thanks

regards
Rabea maskery
0096899878515

Reply

Tristan, Custom Carpentry

Hi Rabea, I recently went to France and saw a wood recycling factory there, well I drove past, stopped and took some pictures of the name and website, if you want it let me know.

Reply

Tristan, Custom Carpentry

Hi Rabea, I am delighted to hear good new like this! Well done for doing something so positive!

I think if you ask these people they will be perfect to help as they do this all the time: http://www.woodrecyclers.org/recycling.php

Sonae have a huge machine and they may be able to help: http://sonaeuk.com/03_00_recycling.htm

And this one is specifically about recycling mdf: http://www.trada.co.uk/techinfo/research/EnviroFibre.htm

Good luck and when I come across more information about the process I will let you know.

Tristan Titeux
Eco Fitted Furniture Pioneer.

Reply