Rehub, Murano glass scraps are transformed into design objects

Every year a thousand tons of glass waste are produced in Murano. A volume equal to the bell tower of San Marco in Venice. They all end up in landfill. Indeed, there is a false perception that glass is 100% recycled. In reality, only glass packaging is. Everything else ends up in landfill as special waste. Faced with this problem is a designer with a love for the planet and for his city. After some study and research experiences abroad, he returns to Italy and invents a way to give glass a second life.

He is Matthew Silverio37, with his wife Marta Dona in 2022 he founded the startup Rehub. “We have devised a process capable of transforming waste glass into a kind of soft paste that we can shape by hand, but also with our 3D printers or using injection techniques. All at room temperature. We mix the glass with binders which make it easily workable. Thus we can create any design object and accessory for the fashion world. 3D printing of glass is nothing new, but it exists as a hot process and is very energy-intensive. We have devised a cold process which allows for considerable energy savings”.

Rehub has won tons of awards, including the award Green&Blue for the most innovative activity against climate change. Degree in architecture, native ecologist, project manager, Matteo works with Charles Rattiand with the researchers of the MIT in Boston.

Today he is focused on research and development and is working on a new technological process. “So we will be able to create even large surfaces with glass scraps, such as the top of a table or its structure”. Researcher at the University of Venice, professor at the Master in Digital Architecture, Silverio decided to found his own startup in Muranothe city of Marthaa place where time seems to have stopped.

“The island has welcomed our innovative project very well and this gives us the strength to believe in it even more. The glassmakers give us glass waste, sorted by colour”. These days Matteo is speaking with investment funds to close his first capital raising and with large companies for future partnerships. “Rehub is now able to process 200 kg of waste per month. From these, 200 kg of products are obtained. The goal, however, is to process tons of waste. We founded a company to create profits, while doing something useful for the planet. There was a problem ahead of us. Nobody saw it. We started from a local issue, but we didn’t know that the issue of non-recyclable glass waste was so big. It is estimated that in Europe the construction sector alone generates around 5 million tonnes of glass waste per year. Most of these end up in landfills or are transformed into semi-finished products for the building industry, in a down-cycling process that does not do justice to this material”.

Meanwhile, the team has expanded with the entry of Erica Villa, science communicator and now communications and marketing manager, and is also working on a “semi-industrial production line capable of processing one ton of glass per day”. Rehub is a play on words that also winks at the international market.

“The prefix “Re” is a reference to the 4Rs of the circular economy (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover), while with the term “hub” we want to indicate a junction. A place where waste enters as waste and exits with a new Our dream? To give young people an example of a more sustainable and technological way of doing business, and to give our children a better planet than we inherited it”.