Plasticiet: Turning recycled plastic into award-winning design
With almost ten years of experience in plastic recycling, through the Karlite and Mother of Pearl collections, the studio has developed an aesthetically refined solution capable of meeting the needs of the retail and interior design markets.
Founded by Marten van Middelkoop and Joost Dingemans, Plasticiet refuses to view plastic as waste, instead considering it a precious natural resource that deserves to be reintroduced into everyday life. The studio applies this philosophy by developing solid surface materials and custom projects for architecture, interior design, and construction, transforming discarded plastic into durable, high-quality surfaces.
Featured at the most recent edition of Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven with the collection Karlite and Mother of Pearl, Plasticiet received the Dutch Design Award in the Emerging Talents 2025 category, together with designers Vera van der Burg and Willem de Haan. Chaired by BYBORRE® founder Borre Akkersdijk, the jury – consistent with every edition – aimed to celebrate Dutch designers who bring new and diverse perspectives to the field.
Gallery
Open full width
Open full width
The jury stated in its official comment: “Plasticiet takes something that many people in the discipline do and raises the bar: they truly create something precious from recycled sources. As a material innovation, it has enormous creative and commercial potential.”
“Among an outstanding group of nominees, these three winners stand out in their fields,” adds Akkersdijk. “Each brings versatility and pushes both their own limits and those of design. They’re makers who keep challenging themselves to create remarkable work, and there’s no doubt they’ll continue to surprise us.”
On one hand, Mother of Pearl, previously featured on DesignWanted, is a collection created in collaboration with Jil Sander, as part of a partnership initiated by Casper Mueller Kneer Architects (CMK) for the brand’s retail stores. The production process of this material is reminiscent of that of a pastry chef: discarded polycarbonate is melted and kneaded by hand, creating its distinctive pattern. The result is a surface that is always unique, where colors and air bubbles play with light and depth.
On the other hand, Karlite redefines translucent solid surfaces, combining refined aesthetics with responsible making. It is produced exclusively in collaboration with local suppliers who provide reclaimed polycarbonate, primarily originating from car headlight manufacturing. In this case, the material and its various finishes – Chalk, Jade, Glacial, Chestnut, Sienna, Quartz, and Pomegranate – evoke the appearance of natural solutions such as wood or minerals.
Plasticiet’s story began almost ten years ago at the Willem de Kooning Academy, with the goal of experimenting with domestic plastic waste. Starting from a small homemade gas oven used to recycle items like shampoo bottles and food packaging, the team first produced 30×30 cm tiles, demonstrating the potential of local waste recovery to create useful semi-finished products, and later expanded to 80×80 cm sheets. Today, the Delft-based studio hosts a workshop where every material and object is handmade and produced on demand, allowing the team to organize work flexibly and minimize unnecessary stock.
With its experience, Plasticiet is now able to produce individual pieces, collections, and retail display units. The guiding approach behind the practice is to make recycling beautiful and scalable by creating a desirable end product – one that provides a real answer to the ongoing quest for sustainability in design. As Marten and Joost explain: “Good products must be produced responsibly, and every design should respect the resources it originated from. We want to prove that recycled materials can endure and stand out next to high-end virgin materials.”
