The Finnish company Woodio, maker of design products of wood composite, has developed a wooden toilet seat. As far as is known, this is the first and only toilet seat made of a wood-based material that can be flushed with water.
The modern, wall-mounted toilet seat challenges its ceramic counterparts. The patented wood composite is an ecological and waterproof material. Made of wood chips and polymers, it has an extremely small carbon footprint.
Woodio does not wish to hide the fact that its mission includes reducing the sizeable carbon dioxide emissions of the bathroom industry. Among other products, the company is making a wood-based hand basin which has proved popular.
According to Woodio’s CEO Petro Lahtinen, the toilet seat brings the company’s use of wood composite on a completely new level.
‘Developing the toilet seat was clearly the most challenging development project during Woodio’s entire history. The design project took three years.
We are now confident that we are able to make almost anything out of this material,’ Lahtinen happily declares in the company’s media release.
Named Block, the wooden seat has three important advantages over conventional porcelain seats. The Block is impact-resistant, so in practice It is unbreakable. You will not be able so much as to dent it even if you take a hammer to it.
Thanks to a dirt-repellent coating, the seat is easy to clean. The high wood content of the material gives it a pleasant warm feel against the skin. The seat is compatible with most flushing systems on the market.
In addition to toilet seats and hand basins, Woodio uses wood composite to make bathtubs and towel hooks. According to the financial newspaper Taloussanomat, Woodio is also in the process of designing a urinal of wood composite, suitable for toilet facilities in hotels and restaurants.
CEO Lahtinen says Woodio is aiming to become one of the leading brands globally in eco-design and materials technology.
‘In the long run, we want to use our wood material in products where it has never been seen yet,’ Lahtinen adds.
Woodio’s products are made at its own manufacturing facility in Helsinki. Earlier in 2021, the company received EUR 7.5 million from the European Innovation Council’s Accelerator programme, thanks to which it will be able to increase its production and, among other things, build a new factory in Finland.
