In Japan alone, the amount of discarded clothing has reached roughly 1.2 million tons a year and most of that has ended up being incinerated, resulting in the emission of huge amounts of greenhouse gases. PANECO® is a sustainable fiberboard made from discarded clothing that has been created by an interior design firm as a solution to the rapidly growing global problem of waste clothing.

PANECO®　breaks new ground because it can be made not only with the fabrics conventionally used to produce apparel also with various other materials employed in clothing, including leather and carbon fiber. This new fiberboard is hard and easy to work with, like wood panels, and as such can be used for a variety of purposes. Moreover, after used, it can be collected and recycled into new fiberboard, making it a truly sustainable product.

Until now, excess stock at apparel makers and fabric offcuts generated during the production process have been destined for disposal as waste to be incinerated or dumped in landfill, but now this material can be reborn as fiberboard and have a second life as display equipment, furniture and fixtures, or interior materials for use in commercial facilities, shops, offices, factories, event venues, and other spaces and then, further down the line, it can be collected and recycled into new fiberboard.

PANECO®　provides the solution to a worsening longstanding problem dogging the global fashion industry and represents a new circular economy model that bridges the fashion and interior design worlds, enabling both industries to reduce their environmental burdens and contribute to a sustainable future.