Jardan creates responsible furniture and lighting with a deep connection to the Australian way of life, with manufacturing headquarters in Melbourne, show rooms across four states and another about to open.
Proudly family owned and Australian made, Jardan is leading the way in sustainable furniture manufacturing. Jardan’s pieces are ‘made for life’, with carefully selected materials whose value can endure as long as possible, whilst also considering their end-of-life outcomes. From design, through manufacturing and after sales, sustainability and traceability is prioritised and tracked to create a quality product whilst minimising ecological impact.
Whilst consciously looking for ways to minimise impact of manufacturing waste, Jardan has already found a mattress supplier to take textile filling for mattresses, community projects for leather scraps and a third party who can safely use MDF as fuel to dry timber.
Seeing an opportunity to reduce timber waste produced during the manufacturing process, Jardan’s Operations Manager, Marcus Downie, sought advice from CEMAC technologies. After a site visit, CEMAC technologies’ sales manager, Jonathan Tan, assisted in building a business case for the two main waste outputs of the manufacturing warehouse, which are soft timber and plywood cut- offs or MDF, both around 200mm in size.
Image caption// WL4 Shredder's for soft plywood and MDF
Jardan ultimately chose to work with CEMAC technologies not only because of their experience in timber and wood waste management, but because their company values closely aligned with Jardan’s vision. CEMAC technologies offered local support, a wider network in the recycling industry and a strong relationship with the overseas manufacturer, WEIMA. Throughout the process, Marcus felt Jardan was able to “treat CEMAC technologies as a collaborator not as a supplier”.
Two WEIMA WL4 shredders and a TH714 briquette press were presented to meet Jardan’s requirements. With up to two rows of knives and aggressive material feed, WEIMA’s WL4 shredder guarantees high through-put with low power requirements. Flexible, interchangeable screens, mean the same shredder model is suitable for both the soft timber throughput of 150kg/h, which needed an optimal screen size of 10/12mm for briquetting and the plywood cut-offs throughput of 250kg/h and larger screen size 20/25mm.
Image caption// Dust and rejected timber pieces ready for processing, timber cut-off briquettes ready for re-sale
After shredding, an air extractor transports the material to separate dust bin collectors. Here, the soft timber is ready for compression into 70mm diameter discs through the WEIMA TH714 briquette press. Specifically designed for throughputs over 150kg/h, the hydraulic, precisely-controlled pressing clamp can produce briquettes with lengths from half the diameter to 1.5 times. Designed as a closed system, the TH714, efficiently controls dust to increase workplace safety and lower maintenance costs.
Due to the vibration-dampening feet made of hard rubber and sturdy welded base frame, there is no requirement to anchor the machine to the floor, making installation simple and flexible and future relocation possible. This is particularly convenient for growing and evolving businesses like Jardan.
Image caption// TH714 outdoors with material supplied through air extraction, a pipe transports briquettes to a collection bin
Recycling off-cuts contributes not only to a sustainable business model, but also to profit margin. Whilst the pay-back on the marketability of sustainability is hard to measure, Marcus is happy to say the “whole system has paid itself back within a few years” through the savings in waste costs. Previously sending approximately 3 x 3m³ bins each day to landfill and spending up to 2k per week on timber waste collection, the investment is a clear win for Jardan. A third party now takes 3 tonnes of briquettes per week for sale as fuel through winter, redirecting waste from landfill and providing Jardan with a nominal profit as a bonus. “Communication has been good from sales through to service. CEMAC’s company personality is engaging and positive, they do not run from challenges”, says Marcus.
Turning out around 300 items per week as an ISO 14000 accredited, B-Corp and Carbon Neutral business takes a lot of passion, investment and dedication that Jardan is more than happy to share. Jardan believes collaboration and sharing of expertise is key to sustainable development in the furniture and wood working industry. They have already joined a study with Monash University on circular economy principles and worked to reduce the harmful effects of unregulated furniture imports through Sustainability Victoria and Australian Furniture Association initiatives.
As a result, Sustainability Victoria have planned an upcoming visit to Jardan’s facilities so they can see best practice on how Australian made sustainable businesses operate.
Jardan’s next focus is to improve their non-burnable timber management and tackle soft plastic waste created during material cutting and transport, turning to CEMAC technologies once again as a trusted partner for recycling solutions.
For more information, contact us.
(03) 8400 6066