About the Design from Recycling team

Design from Recycling is a strongly multi-disciplinary approach and could only be realised through the synergy between industrial design engineers (prof. Els Du Bois and Lore Veelaert, UAntwerpen) and polymer engineers (prof. Kim Ragaert and Sara Hubo, UGent). Their work was financed by the VLAIO-TETRA project 150151: Design from Recycling.

Els Du Bois

Dr. Els Du Bois received her double doctorate in Product Development in 2013 at both TU Delft and Antwerp University. Currently, she works at the Department of Product Development at the University of Antwerp, Faculty of Design Sciences. Within the research group, she sets up the research line on ecodesign, and engages students in designing sustainable products and material-related designs within education.

Lore Veelaert

Lore Veelaert obtained her Masters degree in Product Development in 2015 at Antwerp University. As a research assistant at the Product Development department, she worked on the Design from Recycling project, exploring and applying a design methodology to cases during several design workshops. In addition, as a teaching assistant she is also involved in both Bachelor and Master courses at Product Development.

Kim Ragaert

Prof. dr. Kim Ragaert lectures materials and polymer science at Ghent University, where she holds a tenure track position in the domain of ‘Sustainable Use and Recycling of Polymers and Composites’. Her research team is focused on the development of the necessary scientific tools to enable the improved mechanical recycling of polymer-based materials. Specific topics include upcycling of mixed solid plastic waste, modeling of polymer degradation, Design for and from Recycling, microfibrillar composites, WEEE plastics and recycling of multilayer packaging materials.

Sara Hubo

Sara Hubo is a senior researcher at the Centre for Polymer & Material Technologies at Ghent University. She graduated at Ghent University in 2002 as a Master in Biochemistry and has been involved in various research projects on polymer processing, more specifically defining the structure-property relationships of extruded and injection moulded (recycled) polymers.