Tectan - Foiled Again
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 08.28.05
So pleased to discover that Tectan was still around. My little sample is a decade old and I was afraid they might have gone to an early grave, like so many great eco-design businesses that were ahead of their time. But very much alive and kicking. This most remarkable material is made solely from compressed foil-lined cartons, such as those for fruit juice and long-life UHT milk. The polyethylene lining of the cartons becomes the binder, holding the shredded aluminium foil and paperboard together. To repeat: no additives are used, just the cartons themselves! Brilliant. Obviously it would be preferable to have it make new cartons but until that day this is much better than them all heading to landfill. Originally available in flat sheets to become furniture and panelling, old German Tetrapaks can now become curvy injection moulded products, like these rubbish bins. ::Tectan
I've been interested in recycled Tetrapak since I picked up a sample at Orgatec maybe 9 years ago, so I emailed Tectan when I saw this article. Their reply is not encouraging:
"Thanks for your interest in Tectan boards.
Generally, the use of our panels needs strong attention about technical and physical properties of Tectan as well as local conditions like fire resistance. The demand on Tectan boards is actually very low so that we decided not to supply panels for applications which we can't control and to produce Tectan boards thicknesses only 3-8 mm (10-25 mm which are required for office furniture applications are no longer available).
Thanks for your understanding and we hope this is acceptable for you.
Please visit us at www.tectan.de if you need detailed information about our product range."
What I take from this is that they might be willing to sell 3-8 mm sheet material, or maybe not. In my email I asked about US distribution, which was not addressed in their reply.
Let us know if any of you have better luck.
Tectan should be available in the USA here:
EVD / Richter USA Inc.
11459 Cronhill Drive Ste. C
Owings Mills MD 2117
USA
(410) 581-2610
Hola, quisiera saber si existe informacion para buscar o que me envien sobre los problemas a la salud o al medio ambiente de este nuevo material. Tambien me gustaria saber de los precios, ya que no los he encontrado en ninguna parte. Espero que me puedan ayudar ya que elegi este material para haecr un trabajo para la universidad.
Excelente material!!! ... Saludos.