‘Paper shredder’: A snowboard made from cardboard

It’s easy to assume cardboard is good for packaging and little else, but designers are challenging this preconception by pushing the material to its engineering limits and using for bicycles and snowboards.

Snow board company Signal has collaborated with a packaging company to produce paper shredder – a disposable and recyclable paper-based board that works better than it ought to.

snowboarder

Cardboard bicycle

No matter how strong your lock, or how comprehensive your cycle insurance, the threat of theft persists because selling stolen bikes remains quick, easy and lucrative for criminals.

Israeli entrepreneur Izhar Gafni applied lateral thinking and advanced engineering to the problem and came up with a bicycle made almost entirely from cardboard. It is so cheap to buy, it has little re-sale value for thieves.

The cardboard bicycle defies all preconceptions about the frailties of cardboard; the bike is strong, waterproof and resistant to humidity. Most crucially, at £6, cheap to build.

Gafni admits that early prototypes looked little more than Fedex courier boxes on wheels, but In its final incarnation it has a certain charm and appears to ride well.

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