8 August 2025
By Lyana Musfirah
From piles of discarded event waste to award-winning zero-waste booths, reXtore is redefining Singapore’s exhibition setups with creative designs and circular solutions.
Duncan Craig, a British national, has been in Asia for more than two decades. He recalled attending one of Singapore’s many exhibitions and watched the teardown unfold as piles of discarded posters, pamphlets, and plastic scattered across the floor. It was waste on a massive scale — endless piles of papers, posters, pamphlets, and pieces of plastic was quite the sight to take in.
Trade shows, product launches, and corporate conventions often leave behind a trail of waste that all headed to landfills within days. In Singapore’s bustling Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) industry, paper and plastic alone account for over a third of total event waste.
A feeling of dismay cast over Duncan upon taking in this sight. This overwhelming emotion pushed for action to precede words. Duncan knew that something had to be done, and he was determined to be part of the solution.
Together with co-founder Chris Morriss, their ideas started to take shape. And that later led to the birth of the three-man startup, reXtore, (pronounced as “restore”), a design and build company, pushing for a sustainable and zero-waste booth material alternatives for exhibitions, events, and commercial interiors.
With a focus on both design and function, reXtore proves that sustainability doesn’t need to sacrifice creativity or convenience. Their mission supports a circular economy where waste becomes a resource, and events leave more inspiration than impact.
ReXtore’s first product was AgriWood. It is a set of boards that can be used for exhibits. Instead of using typical boards made from wood that lead to destruction of forests, they utilize rice straw, an agricultural waste that is usually burnt that adds up to carbon emissions. They work with local factories in China and India to collect the straw and turn it into boards that can be used for interior fit-outs, exhibitions and furniture.
They create these in the form of square boards with 15mm in thickness. Combining these boards and their clip-n-play system that attaches the boards together with just joint plastic fasteners and an Allen key.
Their products are designed for disassembly and reuse, prioritizing a circular lifecycle among their products. Rextore believes that impact doesn’t come at the planet’s expense.
Their impressive design made its mark at the 2022 Singapore Fintech Festival by delivering the event’s first-ever NET ZERO booth, demonstrating that sustainable and cost-effective exhibition solutions are achievable.
“And it blew up, like we got so much worldwide press attention, because nothing had been done like that before. It all folded back down again and came back to our warehouse,” Duncan recounts the awe people expressed when his team was disassembling the AgriWood booth.
In 2023, the company was named Best Exhibition Booth Designer of the Year and has continued its mission to lead in creating zero-waste, flexible spaces both in Singapore and internationally.
The company has also achieved bizSAFE Level 3 certification, reflecting its strong commitment to workplace safety and risk management. reXtore is also one of only two stand builders in Singapore to receive GOLD status under the Singapore MICE Sustainability Certifications by SACEOS, the highest level of recognition for sustainability in the industry.
Despite AgriWood’s success, the team knew there was more room to improve.
Some limitations include the time-consuming aspect of assembling the AgriWood boards with the clip-n-play, and that the boards were not water-resistant.
They went back to brainstorming and sought a solution that was faster, tougher, and more versatile. That’s when the team breathed STAXX into life, a modular block system created from 100% ocean bound plastics.
Ocean Bound Plastic (OBP), such as single-use plastics, food packaging, cigarette butts and straws refers to plastic waste that is at high risk of entering the ocean. It typically includes plastic found within 50 kilometers of coastlines in areas where waste management is poor or non-existent. This plastic has not yet reached the ocean but is likely to do so due to wind, rain, or runoff unless it is intercepted.
This is also used in exhibitions and events and is super easy to build and dismantle. It also has potential to be used in medical, military, offices and retail to name a few.
Duncan’s team worked closely with fishermen and recycling plants from Johor Bahru, Malaysia in obtaining these OBPs from rivers and waste sorting facilities, which consist mainly of polypropylene, the same material used to make bottle caps. The collected OBP gets sorted and melted down into pellet-sized products, before being melted again to fill their custom moulds, creating the blocks, ready for use.
As of now, reXtore offers STAXX in a lovely off-white shade, with a translucent option from the high volume of plastic food containers collected. STAXX offers an aesthetic approach to sustainability, making a sophisticated eco-friendly look alongside the accessories they’ve fashioned for versatility.
STAXX checks all the boxes. Durability remains uncompromised with their friction-fit stability, making it convenient, accessible, waterproof and lightweight. This was the perfect step forward in reXtore’s plans.
As of June 2025, reXtore has recycled approximately 10,000 kilograms of plastic, which is equivalent to one million shampoo bottles. This milestone was achieved through their collaboration with Restore Solutions Philippines, focusing on recycling plastic sachets and food packaging. These materials are repurposed into valuable products such as classroom furniture and life-saving boats, contributing to both environmental sustainability and community development.
Apart from the company’s pre-existing goals for their continuous success, this initiative by reXtore holds seamless alignment with Singapore’s MICE Sustainability Roadmap. This roadmap provides clear tiered targets to mould the nation into a leading MICE destination in Southeast Asia, due to the noteworthy sustainable achievements met. It places emphasis on the development of sustainability standards, the adoption of recognized certifications, and the reduction of carbon emissions and waste by 2030.
STAXX’s commitment to sustainable practices and social inclusion directly supports these objectives, offering a clear demonstration of how MICE sector businesses can contribute to Singapore’s short-term and long-term sustainability goals.
Even with STAXX’s success, reXtore continues to push boundaries. The team is currently collaborating with polytechnic students to explore incorporating alternative waste materials like textiles, rice husks, and coffee grounds into future STAXX variants.
As reXtore moves forward, the mission remains clear: to rescue waste and reimagine it as design. With every innovation, they’re not just building booths, they’re building a greener, smarter future for events.
(Edited by Joshua Mendoza)
ReXtore designs and creates reusable exhibition booth setups that are zero-waste and stylish. Based in 55 Ayer Rajah Crescent, Singapore 139949, you can reach out to the team via email; Director, Chris Morris at chris@rextore.org and Sustainability Director, Duncan Craig at duncan@rextore.org or give them a call at +65 9173 1667 (Chris) / +65 9756 5020 (Duncan).
Lyana is an English Literature and Art History major. She has written for Metal Muse Magazine alongside her academic pursuits in research and is looking to expand her scope to new topics and discussions. She is currently working on research involving Javanese culture and heritage and leading NTU’s English Sub-club Publications team for their annual digital magazine.
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