Reuse for Richer Futures

“Looking for ways in which sustainability can become the new normal”, that’s what Linne Bastiaensen aims to do with Recuplan. Recuplan is a young company, created by a young, female entrepreneur, that prevents wood from ending up on the landfill prematurely. Recuplan collects wood, processes it, and puts it back on the market as high-quality, reclaimed wood to get creative with.

Founder of Recuplan, Linne Bastiaensen, started her passion project in 2022 together with Leen Ardui, delegated manager of Ecoso ngo. Together with their team, they’re steadily watching Recuplan grow as interest in reclaimed wood increases. We picked Linne’s brain on her views on the current state of Belgian’s woodcraft industry and future trends.

Q: Linne, what do you see as primary challenges for the Belgian woodcraft industry today?

A: I think we’re facing quite a few challenges, some of them rather big in scale. Even though we’re all aware that we have to move in a more sustainable and circular direction, it still seems too easy for companies to throw materials away instead of recuperating them. We’re still overproducing and buying too many raw materials, often imported, while Belgium itself is a rich country when it comes to wood. We should learn to work with what we have by, for example, adapting our designs to the quantity of material available instead of buying more. A lot of companies are stuck in their old ways. Recuplan offers a new approach and encourages to value reclaimed wood as a worthy primary material, increasing the longevity of the wood fibre.

Q: Do you think there are ways to face some of these challenges?

A: I strongly believe in the power of legislation in changing production and consumption behaviors. EU legislation is already in place, but adoption’s trickling down slowly. Unfortunately, people often have the tendency to choose sustainable only when there’s an economic, marketing and image advantage to be enjoyed. There’s quite a lot of resistance to change within the industry. I think that if we work together, share knowledge and focus on collaborating locally, we’ll quickly create positive changes. We need to dare to be more innovative. Waste repurposing is part of the industry already, but it’s not advanced enough yet.