‘ No CD to Waste’
I love our planet. I love the fresh air I breathe, the clean water I drink, the beauty of nature around me - whenever I can get out of the city, that is ;-)
And I worry about climate change and pollution, threatening our livelihoods. A circular economy is a good way how to change business towards sustainability. I advise companies on this topic and enjoy helping them to rethink their business model.
Two core principles I would like to share with you:
- Renting beats owning materials.
- Being a custodian of our planet beats owning pieces of land.
These may seem obvious. At least for those who see the bigger picture. For me, in a finite world with finite resources – and a limited lifetime, it is clear that we can not really OWN anything.
So how can we change our economic system, which is geared towards capitalization on extracted resources without paying a true price? A true price is the market price plus the social and environmental costs of a product.
Now in packaging, most companies are more or less aware of how they could prevent the use of virgin resources and keep materials in a closed loop. Not to say that they are all acting on that behalf – this will definitely need much more governmental policies and public pressure. Which is well underway!
A circular economy in long-cycle products is generally a bit harder to establish. There is the legacy of previously used but now banned chemicals. The difficulty to influence design and ownership in the typically long, international supply chains. The lagging legislative measures in the sector.
So when similar changemakers asked me to accelerate their efforts in recycling obsolete materials in electronics, I was totally up for it. It is easy enough to sort of ‘downcycle’ materials into low-value products. Whereas making high-end design products, easy to disassemble/reuse/remanufacture, from products that are now waste for society.
In this case, it’s about CDs and their cases. Remember CDs? The round Polycarbonate disks used to listen to your favourite music are packed in Polystyrene boxes and inlays. However, with the current uptake in music streaming, the need for CDs has plunged, making gazillions of CDs obsolete.
In the project ‘No CD to Waste’, we are creating a clear pathway for used CDs and their cases, recycling them into high-end furniture design. So far, we have recycled 7,750 kg of Polycarbonate and Polystyrene and turned it into a valuable design – in the testing phase alone!
Setting up efficient collection and sorting of CDs, design thinking in creative brainstorms, designing, testing, recycling, manufacturing and tweaking product designs – it’s all been part of these last months’ efforts. During our last get-together, I was seriously impressed with the project partners' work, combining bright minds in design and different manufacturing techniques, delivering beautiful products which will last several lifetimes – and convertible into new applications after even! Stay tuned because I will share some sneak previews soon! ;-)
The project ‘No CD to Waste’ is a collaboration between thrift store Emmaus De Bilt, vanPlestik, The Good Plastic Company, cantor and Searious Business.