Stop talking – Start doing

Under the watchful eye of colleagues and the press, a unique partnership between plastic fishing company Plastic Whale and furniture manufacturer Vepa and the IFES member JMT was signed. With a powerful network in Europe, JMT will provide distribution and awareness of the Plastic Whale Circular Furniture line, which was launched in February.

JMT is happy to contribute to sus tainable entrepreneurship within the livecomm industry. With Corporate Social Responsibilit y as paramount, JMT made use of the unique opportunity t o become ‘Launching Partner’ o f Plastic Whale Circular Furniture. Plastic Whale, es tablish ed in Ams terdam and founded by Marius Smit, has created a unique furniture concept in c ooperation with Vepa: design furniture made from recycled plas tic, collected from the canals of Ams terdam.

Stop talking. Let’s start doing!

This is the motto that Plastic Whale develops its activities under “We create economic value from plastic waste with the in volvement of as many people as possible,” says Marius Smit the founder of Plastic Whale. “Every year we fish for plastic in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, t ogether with thousands of people. From these plastics, we have already built eleven design sl oops. We can make an even grea ter impact with office furniture. “The cleaned plastic may no longer be called w aste.”, J anwillem de Kam from ‘furniture factory’ Vepa says: “It is a real raw material that fits the pro duction process of the furniture really well. By making design furniture, we remove this plastic from the chain f or a long time. We add v alue and ensure that form and function match the wishes of our customers.”

Big impact

The Plastic Whale and Vepa c ollection will take off in the c ourse of 2019. The items that are suitable for the rental will bec ome part of the permanent c ollection of JMT and will be o ffered through JMT offices in the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Fr ance and Germany. In addition t o the design, properties such as size, weigh t and, for example, s tackability are important in the c onsideration. A sustainably produced piece of furniture is only really sustainable when it is rented out, if it is also sustainable to transport. “In this w ay, c ontributing to sustainability can be contagious, and this certainly applies to our fellow branches, bu t we also count on our customers to embrace the idea and wtackle the plastic soup t ogether with us!”, says JeanPierre Brouwers, managing direct or rental furniture JMT