To celebrate the NEW Year, we thought we’d share some inspiring and sustainable products that make ingenious use of the OLD. Paper, glass and even coffee (yes, coffee) are transformed with some fresh thinking, creative recycling, repurposing and re-imagining…

Glass Lab collects and crushes glass waste from small businesses, adds a vegetable-based bioresin, and casts the material into a variety of forms which are then redistributed into the local community.

Designer Iain Howlett crafts lightweight and durable PaperClay lamps and tables by free-forming wet pulp from recycled paper.

Slate-ish is a line of aptly-named tiles made to look like slate. The unique product is made by layering and moulding discarded scraps of paper-based composites from millwork installations.

Steenfatt’s new line of 100% biodegradable furniture and lighting makes use of a unique fiber composite called Impasto, made from leftover wood, coffee, and natural pigments. Another moulded paper product that caught our eye is Innovo Design’s latest chair. We love the juxtaposition of materials and the seat’s raw edges (although durability might be an issue).

Raúl Laurí also uses coffee in unconventional ways. His Decafe collection is made from discarded coffee grounds and natural biding substances, which are baked (much like clay) to form lighting shades and tabletop accessories.

Feel inspired? Have a product you’d like to us to see? Please share!