Sustainable Panels from Waste Cardboard

24 January 2023

Elbow Beach Capital has provided £1.5m in seed funding for waste-to-material pioneers, Unwasted. The London-headquartered company, which converts waste cardboard into premium panel boards will benefit from a strengthened balance sheet and EBC’s commercial expertise ahead of its upcoming Series A.

Unwasted’s Neverwaste™ is the world’s first high performance, mass production panel board made entirely from waste cardboard and packaging. By refining and modifying the fibres of cardboard, Neverwaste™ avoids the use of glues, resins and toxic chemicals in the production of a premium-specification material for use in construction, furniture, kitchens and flooring.

Following the successful validation of its technology at its pilot manufacturing plant in Deeside, North Wales, the company aims to raise a £72m Series A through new and existing investors to build its first full-scale production plant in Denmark. The 75,000m2 site in Jutland will be fully powered by renewable energy and operate a closed loop water system, making it one of the most sustainable factory sites in the world.

Rod Fountain, CEO of Unwasted commented: 

“Unwasted’s mission is to produce a sustainable alternative to virgin wood-based panels which can be remade indefinitely without harm to the environment, and this funding round is an important step in achieving this goal. In Elbow Beach we have found like-minded partners who share our ambition and desire to make a meaningful contribution to the decarbonisation of the planet.”