Pro-ID

Going a bit more hi-tech than the mail bins, Germany-based designerPatrick Frey uses Varioline, a name brand sheet plastic injection-molded with a closed-cell foam core, to make his sturdy yet lightweight Nook line of stools and benches for manufacturer Vial. (You've surely seen these before, as the Nook scooped up both iF and Good Design awards for 2010.) The Varioline is scored and cut via CNC, and the resultant shapes are folded into their finished forms.

We know what you're thinking: Isn't it wasteful to have all of that cutoff material? Not really, as the stuff is 100% recycleable.

There's an unedited video below of the CNC cutting up the Varioline. It's about three minutes long, but you only need to see ten, twenty seconds of it to get the idea.