Interiors made from upcycled eggshells

The expression “walking on eggshells,” assumes the shells encasing those golden breakfast staples are fragile. But as sustainable interiors brand Nature Squared has discovered, they are, in fact, extremely durable. 

The company’s award-winning collection of wall and floor tiles is made from waste eggshells mixed with a carefully-selected bonded agent and coloured with natural dyes. These innovative designs won The Influencer in the Asia Pacific design competition, The INDE Awards.

“Now, everyone has been asking me why eggshell,” said the tiles’ designer Elaine Lang Ying Ng, when accepting the award. “But actually eggshell wasn’t our initial starting point. We had bigger visions.”

Together with Nature Squared, Elaine started off exploring the potential of calcium carbonate, a naturally occurring compound found in rocks such as limestone as well as shellfish and eggshell. From her research she discovered that 5% of the planet is made from this material. 

“I kicked off the project with eggshell for obvious reasons. Eggshell is widely available,” she said. Additionally, using waste materials in this way helps lower carbon emissions from production. The company sources its eggshells from bakeries and kitchens, where they would otherwise go in the bin and each square metre of CArrelé, as the collection is called, saves over 3,000 eggshells from landfill. 

“It can also create positive impacts in social contexts,” she added. 

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In the Philippines, the treatment of food waste in landfill can lead to severe health issues in local populations so any way to cut down this waste reduces this risk. Biodegradable materials make up the largest source of the country’s waste, accounting for about 52%.

But it’s not only sustainability that matters to Elaine. Its durability and versatility make it ideal to work with to design hard surfaces.

“It was an obvious answer to us to turn it into an interior product because nature has given us a very good clue,” she explained. “The purpose of eggshell is to protect the embryo in order for it to grow. It’s natural architecture and if it’s good enough for nature it’s probably good enough for human beings.”

Feeling inspired?

WATCH: Find out about the transformative potential of upcycled food.

READ: Discover the designer making ‘the undesirable desirable’.

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