Among the many worrisome accounts of environmental woe, we bring you good news. As of April 1, 2025, Heller is producing 100% regenerative plastic furniture. Happy Earth Day, design lovers!

Plastics in the Collective Consciousness

Let’s go back in time for a bit in order to illustrate how plastic invaded the popular imagination.

Long before the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and microplastic-infested brains, sensitive minds had already begun to worry. In 1971, Modernist Italian writer Dino Buzzati (you might call him a cross between Kafka and GarcÍa Márquez) published “Elephantiasis,” a short story in which plastic objects take on a life of their own. The title condition, also called “cancer of matter,” leads polymer molecules to mutate.

Early reports are amusing, as when “an elegant little table made of a single piece of crimson plastic” turns into a bocce ball. Eventually, plastic dolls and toys, not to mention buildings and bridges, transform into oozing globs. Destruction ensues.

The point of this literary anecdote is simple. Plastic has a bad reputation, which Heller CEO John Edelman inherited three years ago when he purchased the company.

First Things First

Edelman, who’s been in the industry his entire career (first at Edelman Leather, then Design Within Reach and Herman Miller Consumer Group), admits Heller needed a rebirth—but he viewed plastic as an opportunity.

In a recent interview with 3rings, Edelman reformulated Heller’s entire product line in one sentence: “We don’t sell plastic furniture—we sell great design.”

Limbo Chair by Hlynur Atlason for Heller

And while he’s clever, he’s no less passionate. “Great design always has a place—look at the Panton Chair at Vitra, the Masters Chair at Kartell, the Bellini Chair from Heller,” he says. Even so, what do you do with a company that makes its furniture out of plastic at a time when, as he puts it, “nobody drinks from a plastic water bottle”? If you’re Edelman, you make plastic sustainable.

Paradoxically, plastic’s first sustainable attribute is that it lasts forever. “The number one form of sustainability, always, is longevity … our furniture is collectible, it goes to flea markets, it’s passed down generationally,” he notes.

Gehry Bench by Frank Gehry for Heller

Secondly, Heller’s furniture is monolithic. “Since we’re making products out of one material, it’s also super easy to recycle,” Edelman offers. Longevity, check. Recyclability, check. “What can we do better?” he asked himself. Shortly after buying Heller, he started integrating recycled content. Now most of the brand’s products contain about 25% recycled material, except for the Bellini Bar/Counter Stool—which is made of 100% post-consumer recycled polypropylene. Recycled Content. Check.

But that wasn’t good enough.

The Biggest Little Enzyme

Enter the enzyme.

Heller x Worry Free Plastics is a collaboration between the iconic furniture brand and a science-backed technology company. What exactly is the technology and what is it for? I could attempt to condense a very complex, patented technology into a concise explanation, but I won’t. Because Edelman has done it for me: “Worry Free Plastics invented a technology to embed an enzyme into plastic products; the enzyme remains dormant, clicking on only when it’s in a zero-oxygen environment for three to five years.”

Still too complex? “The enzymes eat plastic and poop out nutrient-rich soil,” Edelman clarifies. This is not the same as biodegradation, which can release microplastics.

Will My Chair Disappear?

No. Not while it’s in a normal atmosphere.

Fortune Chair by JUMBO Design Studio for Heller

The plastic-eating enzyme will not activate one day while you’re sitting on your Fortune Chair. Not even if you’re outside. Not even in the rain. Nope, the enzyme takes a couple of years to turn on—years spent in a zero-oxygen environment.

For that Fortune Chair to turn into nutrient-rich soil, it needs to be in a landfill (AKA, the aforementioned zero-oxygen environment). “The biggest thing I was worried about is people thinking that it would disintegrate poolside,” Edelman admits. “We’re very clear—it’ll last forever outside.” Phew! The only thing that will disappear is your guilt about not doing more for the environment.

I’m So Excited—And I Just Can’t Hide It!

Why isn’t everyone so excited that they can’t contain themselves?

Vignelli Bench by Massimo and Lella Vignelli for Heller

Edelman’s response is uncharacteristically reserved: “It takes time for certain technologies to get adopted.” Heller, however, will probably boost business for Worry Free Plastics—arguably, Heller is making the most glamorous products that integrate this enzymatic technology.

Excalibur by Philippe Starck for Heller

That’s because Heller products are iconic. What other brand can make a toilet brush sexy? If it’s Heller, it demands attention.

From old classics like Hellerware (which my mother-in-law calls her picnic dishes) to new icons like the Swell Wall Catchall, the brand bets on the popularity of great shapes and great designers. Heller is also betting on the future, which is, of course, inextricably tied to sustainability.

Swell by Anna Dawson for Heller

Should we be excited for Earth Day this year? “It’s more important by far than it’s ever been,” Edelman says. “I’m beyond excited and, if you don’t get excited, you lose. You lose in more ways than one.”

Read more about Heller x Worry Free Plastics at Heller. If you want the scientific explanation, visit Worry Free Plastics.