Innovation through Simplicity

The Dutch Linseed Oil Project.

Since the rise of the petrochemical industry, almost all paint has been made using petroleum-based materials. Because petroleum literally takes millions of years to develop, it's not a great idea to simply burn through this raw material in a few centuries. At RIGO Verffabriek, we understand things can be done another way. As such, for dozens of years, we've produced a complete assortment of paints using renewable, plant-based oils. Those only take a season to grow.

One of the oils we use is linseed oil, pressed from flax seeds. This linseed oil is normally imported from Canada or Russia. However, we believe it's important to look into the possibilities for cultivating a material like this closer to home. After all, that's how you can see how this material is cultivated and harvested. And that's why we had a few hectares of fallow Schiphol soil in the Haarlemmermeer area sown with linseed in 2014. By now, we harvest about 10 to 12 tonnes of Linseed oil from Dutch soil every year. The oil mills at the Zaanse Schans "press" the oil out of the linseed, and that oil covers about 25-30% of our annual needs.

The Recycled Wall Paint Project

For years, on our initiative, the paint sector association VVVF has been considering ways to bring a communal brand to the market for a wall paint partly made of old paint residue, the kind most people have gathering dust in some closet or shed. An environmental impact analysis was performed in collaboration with waste collector SITA, and we looked for paint producers that wanted to purchase this paint residue to create new wall paint. In the end, as a result of the costs of the sorting process, these paint residues turned out to be about as expensive as new wall paint. As a result, the use of this old paint residue was no longer interesting to paint producers.

However, we wanted to see if there was a way to turn this paint residue into new, professional paint after all. Because we believe that, if you know that it's better to reuse rather than incinerate paint residue, that's something you should do. That's why, early this year, we launched our EVA Wall Paint, which consists out of 97% recycled wall paint residue. As a result of a straightforward and flexible production process, the price of EVA Wall Paint was similar to that of regular professional wall paint. It's remarkable that we're still the only producer that turns this recycled paint residue into new paint. That's because we don't just aim for the "lowest price", but rather want to consciously and optimally use our raw materials.

The Beyond Bio-Based Project

The development of so-called "Bio-Based" paints is a hot topic in the paint industry. These are paints that are produced using materials derived from "living", plant-based, natural sources rather than fossil petroleum.

Sadly, the production and synthesising of these Bio-Based materials still goes hand in hand with severe energy consumption, lots of waste and the use of many chemicals. While they may not be fossil in origin, the processing and synthesising of these materials still have a significant environmental impact.

That's why we believe the standard Bio-Based approach is only the slightest step in the right direction. Companies try to imitate existing petrochemical molecules using Bio-Based, plant-based chemistry, and are missing out on real innovation as a result. It would be way more efficient to directly use the original Bio-Based plant-based chemicals and to keep processing to a minimum. Within reasonable bounds, that's what we call this.

Beyond Bio-Based stands for chemicals from living nature that were subjected to as little processing and treatment as possible while offering contemporary qualities. We started this project four years ago, but the first opportunities arose quickly: it turned out that we only need to minimally heat the linseed oil in combination with a natural resin to achieve shorter drying times and a harder end result than before. This way, without any additives or excessive energy use, we can easily improve the linseed oil. Beyond Bio-Based: not just bio-based, but also produced with the minimum amount of processing and low environmental impact. Our TOPLIN Aqua line of Water-based Linseed Stand Oil Paint arose from this process.

The point I'd like to make about Innovation today can be recognised in all three of these projects. I'd like to take the position that innovation should be based on a moral vision to be effective. I believe a purely commercial approach based on a business case can affect the energy and the belief in a project, making the project less viable as a result:

• If we had predicted all the issues we'd encounter in the Dutch Linseed Oil Project, we'd never have been able to tackle them so laconically.
• If we had estimated the costs of the wall paint residue for the EVA Project in advance, we would never have come up with the idea of creating EVA with no less than 97% recycled residue.
• And if we had directly assumed that Bio-Based was the perfect solution for the petroleum issues, we would never have had the idea to look into straightforward chemistry.

In short, at RIGO Verffabriek, we believe that it's not just product-related technical innovation, but an innovative approach as a whole, coupled with passion, that brings true innovation into our world.