Matter. Rethinking waste beautifully, sustainably, and together.
We believe there is no better way to tell a company´s store than through its waste.
By providing bespoke solutions using the production waste of coffee, chocolate, wine, and beer, we help companies to better use their waste - instead of virgin materials - to present their core values, responsibility, and goals. Also, to inform the final consumer of the provenance of materials.
By giving a new life to solid organic waste, we help shape a truthfully circular economy awareness.
Cross-border/international
Portugal
France
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It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
Yes
2022-12-31
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Matter Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Ana Last name of representative: Lima Gender: Female Nationality: Portugal Function: Director Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Rua da Telheira Town: Porto Postal code: 4250-482 Country: Portugal Direct Tel:+351 933 467 737 E-mail:ana@matter.eco Website:https://vimeo.com/309094971?embedded=true&source=video_title&owner=93442348
I’m very passionate about materials. As the founder of MATTER and an architect, I believe the construction and design industries need a fresh start. One with conscious care for the living environment. Where beauty persists, driven by purpose and nature.
MATTER makes future-conscious materials out of waste - from the production offscourings of our most beloved products, namely chocolate, wine, coffee, and beer. In this sense, Matter reduces the use of virgin resources by providing alternative materials while reusing byproducts from the agrifood industry, exploring its untapped value.
Our vision is to reshape the narrative around the waste.
MATTER was born to enable the circular economy, empowering you to make better choices.
The project focuses on specific raw materials closely related to the European agro-food industry, thus maximizing the economic, social, and environmental value generated by the clustering of strategic sectors.
In 2016 MATTER was considered one of the ten best business ideas in the area of climate change in Europe.
Through the years, we have been validated and supported by major agro-industry waste suppliers, and we have the happiness of having some of them as clients because, with MATTER´s solutions, they can tell the story of their companies through the waste they generate.
waste to product
industrial symbiosis
circular economy awareness
rekindling with nature
sensory materials
- To reduce the use of virgin materials, promoting the upcycling of organic solid waste from agroindustry activity into meaningful products.
How much do we take from the planet, and how much do we give back?
In developed countries, 39% of losses in the food cycle occur in the food manufacturing industry, where food wastes are responsible for 24% of annual greenhouse gas emissions. On the other hand, the construction, furniture, and packaging industries are huge consumers of raw materials. In the construction industry alone, three billion tons of raw materials, are used to manufacture building products worldwide.
We are reducing the use of virgin resources by providing an alternative type of paneling and packaging and, at the same time, giving new use to by-products from the agri-food industry, exploring its untapped value with a positive impact not only from an environmental perspective but also from a technical, social and economic standpoint. In this sense, “nature becomes an endless source of feedstock for the built environment” (The Urban Bio Loop report, Arup Group).
- To contribute to the European Green Deal, creating a circular economy awareness starting at a corporate level
Our business model incorporates from the start the principles of circular economy, industrial symbiosis, and re-materialization in the whole chain, from logistics to production.
According to Directive 2018/851/EC on waste “improving the efficiency of resource use and ensuring that waste is valued as a resource can contribute to reducing the Union’s dependence on the import of raw materials and facilitate the transition to a circular economy model.”
MATTER is relevant to six Sustainable Development Goals (5,9,11,12,13,17), with an inarguable relevance to Goal 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production.
While producing responsible products for big corporates to engage with their consumers, we are also widening the spectrum of circular economy awareness and implementation.
- To create innovative, aesthetic, and sustainable products.
Our products pursue new forms of utilizing daily waste from the food and drinks industries to create unique experiences for our clients and demonstrate that recycled waste can be synonymous with uniqueness and state-of-the-art design that transform physical environments.
- To tell a story - from agriculture to our physical perception of nature on objects that surrounds us
Let´s not forget that despite being industrial waste, these raw materials came from agriculture. So, these materials are keen to retain the original coffee, wine, or chocolate color and aroma. Ready to be experienced. Allying a strong plastic expression to ecological consciousness. These surface materials are an invitation to a totally new and signifying experience once the raw material is intimately associated with its source industry - To terroir.
- To create awareness and inform people where products come from
These new products inform about the provenance of the materials, enrich interior environments, and inspire and delight people.
Material matters.
The word matter comes from Latin materia, derived from mãter (=mother) - in the sense of “source” (earth and fertility) - from which any material is produced, extracted, and created.
For most of the products, you don´t know where they come from, who made them, or where they go after.
We believe there is a better way to design products. We believe in simplicity, beauty, and significance.
We practice design with research, intention, and sensibility. Through research, foresight, and partnerships, we shape the difference and build something new.
We believe products should mean something to you – they can have smell, texture, and color.
We believe in nature. And you are part of it because YOU MATTER.
- Making waste matter - always accessible
Small pleasures in life: drinking a good cup of coffee. Tasting the sweetness of chocolate. Enjoying the warmth of red wine.
Almost ten years ago we asked ourselves how we get from grape to wine, from cocoa to chocolate, and from barley to beer. These production processes generate millions of tons of waste every year. A heavy burden for the companies involved and a threat to the environment. MATTER upcycles solid organic waste from the food industry (wine, coffee, chocolate, and beer industries) into unique bio-based materials that mirror their origin and tell a story. Compared to traditional materials, have key advantages: it is continuously produced and in large quantities, it is freely available, and can be recycled in a sustainable manner.
- Making waste matter - for all
When we were selected to be part of the first IKEA Bootcamp, we wanted to put into practice our vision at a bigger and more meaningful scale. We proved that beer waste can be a great complement to particleboard production. We managed to connect one of the biggest beer producers in Europe and the biggest furniture maker, which vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people. We proved that waste can be a means of inclusion and togetherness and create new business and societal models: Using a recovered resource in a way that maintains its highest possible value for the longest period of time. Replacing the end-of-life concept of a linear economy with new circular flows of valorization of these same materials and preventing the exhaustion of natural resources, positively contributing to the evolution of the economy's metabolism profile.
By working with large corporates we help them and ascribe responsibility for their role in transparently informing citizens. Aren´t big corporates the biggest waste generators?
We help citizens and civil society by posing the best of questions and providing the best information.
This reminds us of the Ph.D. Course in Design where the founder of Matter started to deepen these questions:
How can byproducts of local agro-industries be used as source material for associated product development?
How should the underlying narrative of this process be communicated to its potential consumer segments?
How should the aforementioned questions be calibrated to contribute to a global network of byproduct design?
The aim is to create unique objects with agro-industrial byproducts bound with biodegradable compounds (alternatives to petroleum-based products) – designed as biological nutrients, according to the Cradle-to-Cradle framework. To explore their sensory nature to enhance the intrinsic meaning that stems from their geo-cultural provenance. To increase a semantic awareness of the local economies, both internally and as a narrative brand that can be maximized internationally. This may be anchored in the current “quest for authenticity” that flourishes as a paradoxical and concurrent antidote to digital culture: a return to objects, prime sources, and meaning through gravity.
This project tackles this Post Millennium Tension we live in: the impending catastrophe of climate change, the increasing population growth and consequential overconsumption, waste generation, and depletion of natural resources.
“Designers can change flashy trends into more meaningful strategies by encouraging new behaviors using objects. Citizens of the world have as much responsibility as designers. Broken Nature thus demands us all to collectively apply our resources in order to constructively repair the damaged ecosystems that we inhabit and shape.” (XXII Triennale di Milano, Broken Nature)
The principles of circular economy and industrial symbiosis lie in the genesis of our company. In our impact business model, waste streams are processed into material streams, closing and rematerializing resource loops, in continuous collaboration with a broad spectrum of cross-industry and cross-sector stakeholders.
Many companies became our raw material suppliers and also our clients. The best example is Delta Cafés, the biggest coffee roaster in Portugal. Our relationship started in 2019, and since then, we already developed six range of products with their waste and we know are just getting started. They generate around 180T of coffee waste from the roasting process, and it has been a great journey to explore its possibilities. We have also been working with wine and champagne companies, many in France. We are now imagining a packaging of champagne made with the waste that once gave it life. Some Maisons are also interested in using our materials in the design of their wineries.
Industrial suppliers have helped immensely with MATTER´s latest advancements in tackling industrial issues and figuring out our most-efficient production process. We are working with European stakeholders on the solution for the natural binder.
Design, Architecture, Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering, History, Botanical, and Marketing – all these knowledge fields were fundamental to the structure of the project and still are in our daily practice. We can only build something great if these disciplines go hand in hand and inform each other. Together.
Our achievements through the years, recognition, and validation gave us confidence and stimulus to take this innovation forward: 2015. Finalist (top 3) “Cheers to Green Ideas” competition, promoted by Carlsberg; 2016 – Winner, Climate Launchpad Spain; 2016 -Top 10, Climate Launchpad European final; 2017 - Climate-KIC Accelerator, Netherlands; 2017 - IKEA Bootcamp, Sweden; 2018 – Trend Exhibition, Stockholm Furniture, and Lightning Fair, EN-AW 6082 and No Time to be Wasted; 2018 - Pilot with Chanel, restaurant Beige, Alain Ducasse, Tokyo; 2018 – Winner, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award, promoted by Crédito Agricola; 2018 - Funded. “Support Program to the Transition to a Circular Economy”, Portuguese Government; 2018 - Winner, Novo Verde Packaging Enterprise Award; 2018, Top 15, SIT, promoted by the EIB (European Investment Bank) Institute; 2019 – Winner, Inovdesign, Serralves Foundation; 2019 - Winner. DisrUPtion ; 2019 Pitch @EVPA (European Venture Philantropy Association) Anual Conference, Netherlands; 2020 - Top 10, LVMH Innovation Award; 2021 – Finalist, MassChallenge CH; 2021 - Semi-finalist, Luxury Venture Group; 2022 - Selected to participate in Village Capital Emerging Futures Program, with Visa Foundation.
Our goals are to set up our industrial process and make CE certification, so we can use these materials on flooring, ceilings, and walls at a bigger scale to target architectural products distributors.
We are being featured in a CSR campaign for the biggest coffee roaster in Portugal, with the motto "What if waste was just the beginning?". We are turning their coffee production waste (the silverskin) and the leftovers of the paper filter from capsule production into beautiful products for them. Every time we order a coffee, if it comes with a sugar package with a picture of the panels we produced, or we see it in an outdoor advertisement at a bus stop we smile and remind ourselves that we are on the right track.
MATTER´s disruptive approach of upcycling agro-industrial waste into innovative surface materials caught the attention of companies like IKEA or Stora Enso. To give an example: MATTER was selected among over 1200 participants from 86 different countries to be part of the first IKEA Bootcamp. During that time, we established contacts with the biggest beer companies in the world (unlikely partners, but that are facing the same challenges) to prove that by changing the way big companies use resources they can contribute to a closed-loop society and avoid the depletion of precious resources of our planet. What does beer have to do with Billy? IKEA uses around 1% of the world’s industrial wood supply, which corresponds to 17 million trees (even being FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified the number is still this one). Annually, there are generated 30 million tons of brewer's spent grain, a byproduct of beer production. We proved, through industrial symbiosis, that a waste product of one of the most consumed beverages in the world can be turned into a valuable resource to the largest furniture company on earth.
MATTER demonstrates that it is possible to have a different paradigm for materials. We aim to provide designers and practitioners with beautiful, environmental architectural products while replacing some of the traditional architectural products with better equivalents made with organic waste as a resource.
In the latest years, more and more companies are presenting interesting solutions in this field. However, the strength of MATTER´s product lies in its narrative, transforming the production waste of well-known products into aesthetic and functional materials, with extraordinary textures.
Our biggest achievements through the years authenticate our disruption and give us the confidence and stimulus of taking this innovation forward.
MATTER is the culmination of intensive R&D carried out systematically over the last ten years.
When we started the project, we approached the biggest producers of coffee, wine, beer, olive oil, and chocolate with the intention of validating our concept and collecting their waste. In this process, we realized that most of the companies didn´t know the untapped value they had indoors nor didn´t seek better options to deal with their waste. So, we started a big journey on one hand of informing and creating awareness in companies and planting the seed of their role in society – how especially they can close the loop in a meaningful way. We believe they owe that to their consumers.
On the other hand, our always objective was to find a natural and biobased way to bind the byproducts together and this development took and it is still taking the longest time.
MATTER is an award-winning company that offers new materials through the use of by-products and organic waste. Its patented technology allows for a sustainable alternative to architectural and design products.
Our impact will be bigger the bigger our production capacity will become.
We have now quite an established methodology of turning solid organic waste into products that we can apply to different by-products and materials. Many times, we are approached by companies to develop solutions out of new raw materials and it is quite easy for us to replicate the process.
Also, we have been improving and perfecting our production process. This Christmas we produced for the first time 6000 coasters out of beer waste for the biggest beer producer in Portugal.
Also, we can replicate our technology in mini-industrial facilities next to where the waste is.
In December 2019, the European Commission published its much-anticipated European Green Deal. MATTER aims to contribute to the Green Deal implementation in terms of delivery directly to five sustainability goals: Mobilizing industry for a clean and circular economy; Building and renovating in an energy and resource-efficient way; From ‘Farm to Fork’: designing a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system; Preserving and restoring ecosystems and biodiversity; A zero pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment. MATTER´s approach addresses these challenges as one. We have embraced the principles of circularity to create a product and production approach that innovates across the entire spectrum, enabling high-performing, regenerative, sustainable, ethically sourced, and produced products, building new innovative value chains. In our business model, these five sustainable goals are interconnected and fuel themselves in a truly circular economy way, by using waste from food and drinks industries to create sustainable and healthy products with a huge impact on design and future construction and sustainable renovations, through strong partnerships. All of this, by not contributing to the depletion of more resources of our dearest home, planet earth.
We are doing this by locally sourcing the agroindustrial by-products, that is well part of a region´s cultural identity. Every country thinks they have the best wine, the best coffee, or the best beer. Our project wants to tear down borders.
In the same sense, the Bauhaus movement was created in a small city in Germany and its repercussions were highly global, we want to expand our depth of work company by company, waste by waste.
That is why we like to say Waste is the New Bauhaus.
