Olive oil residue turns into designer furniture at the Fair

Tabletops made from olive pits will be on show in the Parc du Cinquantenaire from 9 to 13 June, as the Festival of the New European Bauhaus returns to Brussels. This year the Festival will include a Fair showcasing innovative projects from around Europe that promote New European Bauhaus (NEB) values of sustainability, aesthetics and inclusiveness (see here for a list of Fair projects on site and here for the full Festival programme).  

Turning waste from olive oil production into new products perfectly captures this trend, a co-founder of the Pit-board project said, as he prepared to join more than 60 exhibitors at the free summer Festival. 

“Pit-board really sits at the heart of the NEB values,” said Bugra Ebeler, who in 2005 launched the Pit-board initiative in Cyprus, along with Mustafa Afsaroglu and Yağmur Fellahoglu. “From a sustainability perspective, it transforms agricultural waste into a circular building material, cutting carbon and reducing landfill,” he explained.  

Pit-board itself is not just used for tabletops. The same pit-based surfaces can be used to create other furniture such as benches, cabinets and shelves, he added. “In terms of aesthetics, it has a beautiful natural texture that designers and clients love — it doesn’t just perform well, it looks good.”

“And for social impact,” said Bugra, turning to the cooperation and cross-border partnerships fostered by NEB, “we work with both Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot farmers. So the project isn’t just about materials, it’s about bringing communities together through collaboration.” 

This means that Pit-board works with farmers from both sides of the island, collaborating with Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot creatives, researchers and universities. Importantly, the olive pits themselves also come from olive oil mills from both sides of Cyprus.  

Bugra said it was Mustafa who came up with the idea for Pit-board, inspired by both his Cypriot upbringing and time spent working in London. Back in Cyprus, he encouraged others not to see olive pits as agricultural waste but as a raw material that was being overlooked. 

Crushed pits are a byproduct of olive oil production. About 67% of the world’s olive oil is produced in the EU, but only 20% of an olive will become oil. This means that the residue, including pulp and skin as well as pits, is left as a much lower value, and environmentally challenging, byproduct. 

To make the boards, the already crushed pits are cleaned and then ground into even smaller particles, before being mixed with a bio-resin, pressed into moulds, and finally sanded and oiled for use. 

Bugra added that their products can now be seen in showrooms and design shows from Cyprus to Helsinki, Copenhagen to Venice, London to New York. 

And, for five days this June, in Brussels at the Festival of the New European Bauhaus.