By Woo Jiwoo
Recycling is a process of collecting and
converting materials into anew product instead of throwing them away as trash.
We all may have done some recycling at least once in our lives, such as making
rockets with plastic bottles or reuse printed paper as scratch paper. However,
it couldn’t solve the radical environmental problems and soon will become trash
again. Nowadays, many companies are concerned about producing environmentally
friendly items which are made from recycled waste that can be sustainably used
as well.
The first good example of eco-friendly
companies is Nike, one of the most recognized brands in the world. Nike launched
the exploratory footwear “Space Hippie” on June 11. Nike used ‘Space Waste
Yarn’ which is made from 100 percent recycled materials including recycled
plastic water bottles, T-shirts and textile scraps from factories. The outsole
part of all Space Hippie shoes is created with ‘Crater Foam’, which is made from
a mixture of standard Nike foams and 15 percent of Nike Grind Rubber that gives
a lower carbon footprint and unique texture. Space Hippie has a purpose but
doesn’t veer from Nike’s legacy of breathtaking design. This experimental
project is based on the ISRU method employed in space travel. It suggests that
when humans go into space, they must generate their own products by using local
materials. Nike’s designer, Noah Murphy-Reinhertz, said, “there’s no resupply
mission coming to Mars, there’s no resupply mission coming to earth either.”
Second is Pentatonic, a European
furniture company, which makes all its furniture from past-consumer trash,
rings from cigarette butts and wallets from plastic bottles. They design and
create beautiful products and good that qualify for a more sustainable and
responsible way of livingthat can be recycled over and over again, which means
they won’t ever be out of materials forever.
Lastly, you can’t talk about the
eco-friendly companies without Apple, the world’s most valuable publicly traded
company. Apple has been working on designing more sustainable and eco-friendly
products and using clean energy without emitting carbon footprints. Even though
the enclosures of the MacBook Air, MacBook mini, iPad, and Apple Watch are made
entirely out of recycled materials, but they don’t compromise quality. They
also provide “Trade-in” service for customers to exchange their old device for
a new one at a discounted price.
A great deal of our garbage is coming
from packing such as takeaway cups, plastic bags from grocery shopping, and
cardboard boxes from online shopping. Instead of upcycling (reusing trash to
create a higher quality products), many companies started removing their
packaging. Especially in UK, supermarkets are announcing the removal of plastic
bottles from sale. There are refill stations for goods such as pasta, rice,
grains and cereals and bagless fruit and vegetable on the aisle shelves.
Supermarkets are encouraging consumers to bring their own containers to take
produce away. As a result, according to the report of the Waste and Resources
Action Programme (WRAP), supermarkets had already removed 3,400 tons of
unnecessary plastic packaging from fresh produce.
Why are so many companies
consideringenvironmental causes now? One of the main reasons would be the
growing weight of environment laws by governments around the world. Instead of
environmental laws, manufacturing eco-friendly products not only can enhance
the reputation of brand but also can make consumers more inclined to buy the
products. Consumers today are much more aware about environmental problems than
10 or 15 years ago, therefore, eco-friendly products literally lead to higher
number of sales that it became an inevitable factor in the future market.
The world threw away almost 300 million
tons of plastic last year, which is nearly as heavy as the human population.
Scientists predict that there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean by
2050, which apparently is a serious problem. We can no longer imagine the
future without recycling, the seriousness of environmental pollution changed
our way of thinking. It’s impossible for people to not buy new things, but if recycled
materials don’t compromise the original quality and safety of the products,
there is no more reasons for manufacturers and consumers to not choose recycled
products.
