From Recycled Materials to Real Products: What Has Changed?

When did “eco-friendly material” become more than just a nice idea?

I started working with sustainable and alternative materials quite a few years ago.

Over time, I've worked with RPET fabrics, felt, cork, cork leather, recycled leather, biodegradable packaging, paper-based materials and products made with things like coffee and tea waste.

At first, I was mainly interested in the materials themselves.

What is it made from?

Where does it come from?

Can it replace a conventional material?

Those are still important questions.

But after working with these materials for years, I think there is a more interesting question:

Can we actually turn the material into a product that people want to buy and use?

That's a much harder question.

And honestly, it's where things get interesting.

So, is RPET really a better material?

Let's start with something I have worked with quite a lot: RPET.

Recycled PET can be made from used plastic bottles and other PET waste, turning material that would otherwise become waste into a new raw material.

That sounds simple.

But when you actually develop a product with RPET fabric, the questions start coming.

How does the fabric feel?

Is it strong enough?

Does it hold its shape?

Can it be printed consistently?

Can the factory maintain the same quality from one production run to another?

And perhaps most importantly:

Does the finished product last long enough to justify making it in the first place?

That last question is easy to overlook.

A recycled material doesn't automatically make a sustainable product.

The product still has to work.

What about cork?

Cork is another interesting example.

I've worked with cork products such as coasters and bottle stoppers, and later with cork leather for bags and accessories.

Cork has some obvious advantages. It comes from the bark of cork oak trees, which can be harvested without cutting down the tree. Cork has also been studied for applications in sustainable product design and composite materials.

But again, the material itself is only the beginning.

If you are making a bag from cork-based material, you still need to think about:

• flexibility

• abrasion resistance

• stitching

• surface finishing

• water resistance

• hardware

• construction

• expected product life

A beautiful material can still make a disappointing product if the construction isn't right.

That's something you don't always see in a product photograph.

And then there is “plant-based”...

This is where things get even more complicated.

Over the past few years, we've seen increasing interest in plant-based and bio-based alternatives to conventional materials.

Some are made using agricultural waste.

Some use plant fibres.

Others use fungi, cellulose or other biological materials.

There is some genuinely interesting work happening here. Research published in 2024, for example, looked at bio-based leather-like materials made from different biological and waste-derived sources.

But I don't think the right question is:

“Is this material plant-based?”

I'd rather ask:

“What can this material realistically do?”

Can it make a durable bag?

Can it survive everyday use?

Can it be manufactured at a reasonable scale?

Can the factory produce consistent quality?

Can the customer afford the final product?

Those questions matter just as much.

So what has actually changed?

For me, the biggest change isn't that there are suddenly more “eco materials.”

There have always been interesting materials.

The bigger change is that sustainability is moving closer to product design itself.

In July 2024, the EU's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) entered into force. It created a framework for setting sustainability and information requirements for almost all categories of physical products sold in the EU.

And look at the areas it focuses on:

How long does the product last?

Can it be repaired?

Can parts be removed and reused?

Can it be recycled?

How much recycled content does it contain?

What is its environmental impact over its life cycle?

That's a very different conversation from simply saying:

“This product is made from recycled material.”

Are customers really looking for this?

There is an interesting point here.

Consumers clearly care about sustainability, but that doesn't mean they will ignore price or product quality.

PwC's 2024 global consumer survey found that 80% of respondents said they were willing to pay more for sustainably produced or sourced goods, with an average stated premium of 9.7%. At the same time, inflation and cost-of-living pressures remained major concerns.

That tells me something important.

Sustainable products still have to be good products.

People may be willing to pay a little more.

But they don't want to pay more for something that works worse.

This is where product development becomes important

Imagine two bags.

Bag A

Made with recycled fabric.

The marketing says:

“Made from recycled materials.”

Sounds good.

Bag B

Also made with recycled fabric.

But the designer has thought about:

• how much material is actually needed

• how the panels are cut

• how strong the stitching needs to be

• whether the hardware can be replaced

• how long the bag should last

• whether the materials can eventually be separated

• how the packaging can be reduced

Which one is more interesting from a sustainability point of view?

For me, it's clearly Bag B.

Because sustainability isn't just printed on the product label.

It is built into the product.

So, can recycled materials become mainstream products?

Yes.

But I don't think the answer is simply:

“Find a greener material and replace the old one.”

The real process is more like this:

Material

↓

Design

↓

Manufacturing

↓

Product

↓

Real-world use

↓

Repair / Reuse / Recycling

And every step matters.

That's also why I don't think sustainable product development should be separated from manufacturing and sourcing.

A material might look fantastic in a sample book.

But if only one factory can produce it, the MOQ is too high, the quality changes from batch to batch, or the finished product is too expensive, you may not have a commercially viable product.

That's the part of sustainability that I find particularly interesting.

Making the idea work in the real world.

What I look at now

When I look at a new sustainable material today, I don't immediately ask:

“Is this green?”

I ask a few more questions.

What problem does this material solve?

What product is it actually suitable for?

Can it make the product better, not just greener?

Can it be manufactured consistently?

Will customers accept the price?

How long will the product last?

And finally:

What happens after the customer is finished with it?

I don't always have a perfect answer.

But I think asking the right questions before developing a product is a pretty good place to start.

From materials to products

This is probably the biggest lesson I've learned from working with sustainable materials.

A material is not a product.

And a sustainable material doesn't automatically create a sustainable product.

The real opportunity is in the space between the two:

taking an interesting material and turning it into something useful, durable, commercially realistic and worth keeping.

That's the part of sustainable product development I want to keep exploring through Original Eco Lab.

Because the goal isn't simply to make products look greener.

The goal is to make better products.

What do you think?

Have you worked with recycled, plant-based or other alternative materials?

I'd be interested to know which materials you've found genuinely useful — and which ones looked promising but didn't work in practice.

Let's compare notes.