|
In 2019, there was a girl who spoke out to world leaders at the UN Climate Action Summit. She's Greta Thunberg. "Humans are endangered", she said, calling for measures to reduce carbon emissions and making a big splash around the world. Due to the influence of her voice, recently, many young people have become interested in environmental issues. According to NellyRodi, a French trend forecasting agency, 90% of Thirteeners and Millennials try to buy environmentally reliable products. To meet these needs, many companies around the world are also trying to improve environmental pollution problems. In this article, I would like to introduce several “upcycling” brands that pursue sustainability.
Nukak
Nukak is an upcycling brand that was originated in Barcelona, Spain. It is similar to FREITAG, an upcycling brand that is best known to us, but the price is a little lower. They sell bags and wallets that are made into banners, tires, tubes, surfing sails, at low prices of 50,000 to 100,000 won. Each product has a different way of cutting and attaching fabrics, so you can have the only bag in our world.
Nukak's entrepreneurial spirit is that "everything has a second chance." Things that are easily used and discarded in everyday life should be given a chance to shine once again. If you're looking for a new bag, why don't you buy the only one from Nukak?
Emeco
Emeco is an American furniture brand that sells upcycling furniture made using their own waste processing method. Emeko has gained the image of an eco-friendly company since they completed the 111 Navy Chair in collaboration with Coca-Cola in 2008. It is characterized by a remake of Emeko's signature product using 111 bottles of coke. The 111 Navy Chair, which can be used semi-permanently, been made with glass fiber added to the plastic bottle, was recognized for its ingenuity by winning the Good Design Award in 2010 and the product design award at the iF Design Award.
O’right
O’right is a Taiwanese brand that makes natural shampoo and hair oil using coffee grounds and tea leaves. The package is also made of 100% renewable plastic, which produces only a quarter of the carbon emissions of regular plastic bottles. They also contributes part of its profits to refugees and forest restoration.
Orom
Orom is a premium stationery brand in Korea, and upcycling discarded vinyl records to produce notes. Vinyl is made of PVC, making it harder to recycle than other plastics, and environmental pollution may occur during recycling. To solve this problem, Orom created a completely new product by using vinyl as a note cover as it is. All of them are made of vinyls that had actually been used, so you can keep the only one note that contains your favorite songs. If you haven't chosen your 2023 diary yet, I would recommend buying Orom's record notes.
So far, we have looked into four upcycling brands. Upcycling is not an easy task because the process from material supply to commercialization is long and complicated. Therefore, there is a disadvantage that it is expensive. However, if people strengthen their environmental awareness and develop technology, it will be able to gradually improve these problems. In order to lower the entry barrier of price, consumer's demand must first be assured. If consumers pay attention to eco-friendly products, the scale of the upcycling industry will grow even larger. It's time to start making good choices for the Earth. < Copyright © The Gachon Herald All rights reserved > |
