A facade that started in the sewer

In De Meern stands an office building clad in toilet paper. Not the rolls, but the cellulose inside them, recovered from wastewater and turned into a facade. On 26 May 2026, water authority chair Nanda van Zoelen of De Stichtse Rijnlanden placed the final panel. The building belongs to the same water authority that supplied the raw material. The loop closes on itself.

The problem nobody sees

Every year the Netherlands flushes around 180,000 tonnes of toilet paper down the drain. That paper does not disappear. It arrives at the wastewater treatment plant, where it has always been treated as a nuisance: something to filter out and haul away. But toilet paper is largely cellulose, the same fibre that comes from trees and forms the basis of paper, cardboard and building insulation. As waste, it costs money to remove. As a raw material, it is a resource hiding in plain sight.

What we built

De Stichtse Rijnlanden recovers that cellulose at the treatment plant as screenings. We picked it up from there. The challenge in material development rarely sits in the idea. It sits in consistency. A waste stream has a variable composition. A facade panel has to meet a fixed standard. We developed a Nabasco biocomposite panel that does exactly that. It is strong and dimensionally stable. It withstands UV, rain and frost. The expected lifespan is at least 50 years. It meets the fire safety requirements that apply to a facade in the built environment.

The 200 m² facade took the screenings of 2,000 rolls of toilet paper. Open Muur Architecten designed the facade so that the recovered fibre stays visible in the surface. You can read the material in the wall.

The impact of this project

The biobased composite facade emits 75% less CO2 than a brick version. Recovering cellulose prevents extra logging and saves energy. And every kilo of fibre that becomes a panel is a kilo that does not have to be hauled off and destroyed. Three gains from one decision: a cleaner treatment process, a facade with a lower carbon footprint, and a waste stream that proves its worth.

A start, not an endpoint

Cellulose from wastewater does not stop at facades. It works as a binder in asphalt and for sheet piling. The same treatment plant also yields Kaumera, a biopolymer being studied as a fire retardant for a next generation of panels. De Meern is one application of a much larger idea: a treatment plant is not the end of the line. It is a raw material factory.

Interested?

We are looking for projects where recovered materials can prove themselves as biocomposites in new applications. Are you developing new products and looking for a strong biobased alternative? Get in touch with NPSP.