COFFEE – ELIXIR OF LIFE
Coffee is deeply rooted in many cultures and holds the status of the most popular drink worldwide. Global consumption is steadily rising, meaning that the coffee grounds, the remainders, are too. So, where do the coffee grounds end up? Is it possible to make preserve them? To find a sensible way to reuse them?

OUR VISION
Product designer Julian Lechner was intrigued by the idea of creating something new and lasting out of supposed waste, so he began experimenting with coffee grounds. Three years later, he had discovered the unique formula: recycled coffee grounds and renewable raw materials were transformed into the durable, robust material Kaffeeform. Which then became the Kaffeeform cup.

COFFEE CUPS MADE OF COFFEE GROUNDS?
That’s right! A bicycle courier collective gathers used coffee grounds from selected cafes and roasteries in Berlin and then brings them to a social workshop. There, the grounds are dried and preserved. At small plants in Germany, the material is then compounded and shaped into coffee cups. Once back in the social workshop in Berlin, the cups receive their final polish, are packaged, and sent to cafes, shops, and end customers.

Kaffeeform

Shower Power by Ampere is a waterproof speaker that generates 100% of its power from water, so you can listen to your favorite music, podcasts and audiobooks in the bathroom. Designed to fit any showerhead, it's also made from 100% recycled ocean plastic.  

We're listening to more content at home than ever before. If you're like us, you've got music and podcasts streaming at all hours. But there's one place in the house that's tough to get good sound — the shower. Existing waterproof speakers just don't cut it. So, we made a speaker that you'll love using in the shower, every day.

 Our Hydropower speaker was designed to never leave you without music in the bathroom. Once installed, Shower Power never needs to be removed. And that's all thanks to our proprietary hydropower system. 

Our hydropower system works like a water wheel in a dam. Before the flow from your shower reaches the showerhead, it rotates an internal impeller, which is connected to a mini-generator that charges a battery. The moment water starts to flow, Shower Power starts to charge.

 Shower Power

AI and Robotics are revolutionizing waste and resource recovery.
CleanRobotics has built an autonomous system that uses robotics, computer vision and artificial intelligence to detect and separate landfill from recyclables. It does this more accurately than human beings, captures high quality waste data and it lets staff know when it’s getting full. Cloud connectivity allows individual units to learn from the global TrashBot fleet, becoming more intelligent over time. It also has a monitor for corporate communications, education and advertising.

TrashBot ♻️

We are delighted to introduce you to SMĪLE. Made of 4,276 recycled chopsticks, SMĪLE is the proof that eco-friendly minimalism can look beautiful and be durable. And become the furniture that suits your home and office.

By ensuring sustainable design practices and relying on a circular economy, each SMĪLE shelf is carbon negative — gathering the raw materials and building your shelf stores more CO2 from the environment than it takes to make and deliver it!  

SMĪLE saves space through the clean minimalist lines of its modular design. No matter the interior, SMĪLE is the perfect frame to highlight the things you love.

 Enjoy the flexibility and freedom to build your own unique SMĪLE shelving system. Add the lightness and the fine blend of its history-infused iconic modern design to your home or office.

Its bespoke design is a conversation starter. Simple. Striking. Serene. Stylish. And who thought you could hang chopsticks on the wall? We did, with a SMĪLE.

SMĪLE is the sophisticated modular storage solution that allows for flexibility in any interior. Find the style that perfectly suits you, and refresh your space as often as you want.

SMĪLE

A swimwear brand obsessed with creating a better world by using plastic from our oceans and landfills to make premium swim shorts that are made to last.
The driving force behind MARDA is simple. To design swimwear for men by unifying exclusive forward designs with a highly green focus.
A swimwear brand obsessed with creating a better world by using plastic from our oceans and landfills to make premium swim shorts that are made to last.

Every production step, from sourcing 100% recycled materials, to the design aesthetic right through to fabric innovation, is enriched by our creative touch and profound love for the earth. 

MARDA SWIMWEAR

We recycle spent coffee grounds into a broad spectrum of efficient, sustainable products for a range of markets, both consumer and industrial.

The UK consumes 95 million cups of coffee every day, creating hundreds of thousands of tonnes of spent coffee grounds every year. Much of this discarded resource ends up in landfill emitting harmful greenhouse gases, including methane.

We work with the biggest companies in the UK to transform these spent coffee grounds into value at an industrial scale, giving new life to a material previously considered waste.

bio-bean

Our first product is a revolutionary bluetooth speaker made from plastic trash that would otherwise end up in landfills or the oceans. 
We are based in Brighton, UK and are working towards preventing plastic waste ending up in landfill sites or being incinerated.

Every year the world throws aways 150 billion kilos of flexible plastic waste - such as plastic bags, bubble wrap, food wrapping and pallet wrapping. It’s currently not recycled, but burned worldwide, releasing poisonous toxins into the air. We hope to make an impact by repurposing the plastic waste into a more valuable cherished material.

Every piece we make is completely unique, with its own individual marble pattern. We can work with brands to make specific colour patterns to suit an existing product collection or create your own original colour range.

Types of plastic waste we work with:
Flexible PE - LDPE & HDPE
Such as plastic bags, bubble wrap, and pallet wrap.
PP
Such as yogurt pots, margarine containers and clear disposable cups.
PS
Such as plastic food boxes and plastic cutlery.

Gomi

To successfully transition to a sustainable economy, we must move from linear to circular processes. The concept of circularity is quite simple: “It entails gradually decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources, and designing waste out of the system”, as described by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. But turning this concept into real processes is a real challenge.

In only a few decades, plastic waste has become one of the world’s most visible environmental issues. Indeed, while the quantity of plastic produced keeps increasing every year - from 1.5 million tonnes in 1950 to 322 million tonnes in 2015 worldwide - the recycling processes are still complex and expensive. In the EU, less than 30% of plastic waste is recycled. The rest is sent to non-EU countries for treatment, goes to landfills, is incinerated, or ends up uncollected in nature.

Some plastics are specifically more difficult to recycle, such as opaque and multilayer PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) bottles, full sleeved PET bottles or multilayer PET trays. In the European market, the volume of this non-recycled complex PET waste is estimated around 200’000 tons, which end up incinerated or even landfilled in Europe. Since China’s recent ban on plastic waste imports, it is increasingly urgent to find other solutions.

Sopraloop is a new recycling process invented by French company Soprema (partner of the Solar Impulse Foundation), which can turn non-recycled PET plastic waste into house insulation. The process combines, as a world first, both mechanical and chemical recycling. The mechanical recycling is composed of a sorting machine, shredder, washer, and dryer to prepare the waste stream by separating PET components from other contaminants (moisture, paper, other plastics, ..) and shredding the plastic into small pieces. Then, the chemical recycling transforms the PET into polyester polyols.

Sopraloop

SunCrafter manufactures maintenance-free solar generators from so called early-loss solar modules. Thanks to our unique technology, these products can produce power without depending on a battery or other fragile electronic parts. This way we invented the world’s easiest (and most sustainable) solar system – which can be used in any off-grid area.

EasyPanel
The EasyPanel is a simple and safe 200W solar system. Designed to withstand the most challenging environments, it can power televisions, recharge phones, run water pumps, operate lighting and ventilation or charge batteries for up to 150 years.

SolarHub
The SolarHub is an off-grid solar system in a standalone case. Outfitted with a 12V battery it can deliver a continuous energy flow. SolarHubs are currently in use in cities and at events, as charging stations for mobile phones and micro-e-mobility devices.


Off-Grid
Requires no infrastructure.
Independent from grid,
fuel and storage medium

No Maintance
Elimination of breakable parts
lowers cost of use drastically

Plug & Play
No installation required.
Connects with any DC
device up to 14.5 V

Expandable
For additional power,
systems can be connected in series
and batteries attached

Safe to touch
Super safe through
Safety Extra Low
Voltage Ouput (SELV)

Built to last
Waterproof, short-circuit
resistant and wind resistant
for up to 150 years



SunCrafter

TerraCycle® is a social enterprise Eliminating the Idea of Waste®. In 20 countries, we tackle the issue from many angles. We have found that nearly everything we touch can be recycled and collect typically non-recyclable items through national, first-of-their-kind recycling platforms.

Leading companies work with us to take hard-to-recycle materials from our programs, such as ocean plastic, and turn them into new products, and our new Loop platform aims to change the way the world shops with favorite brands in refillable packaging offered with convenience and style.

With your help, we’ve diverted millions of pounds of valuable resources from landfills all over the world, and we’re just getting started.

TerraCycle

We will be measured by the legacy we leave for future generations. So, we’re doing something about it. We’re building solutions for food waste, energy and water for people like you around the world who care where their food waste ends up, or how their energy or water use is managed. We’re only young, but we have some great ideas. Importantly, we can help you can make a difference now. Before it’s too late.

Food waste is a big problem. One-third of all food produced ends up in landfill. Trucks transporting food waste emit carbon dioxide. Landfill emits methane and toxic leachate to our waterways. We can change that. Our ORCA waste digester enables you to dispose of food waste on site. At your restaurant, your hotel, your food manufacturing business. No more landfill. No more trucks. Check out our waste page to see how you can start your journey to make a difference. We’re working on new energy and water solutions so you’ll hear more about these soon.

Who is iugis?

We’re a global team of people who care about future generations and what we’re doing to the planet. 

We started as Forum Enviro back in 2014 selling energy efficiency products. In 2016, we met some great people in Canada who had developed this innovative solution to food waste – ORCA -  and subsequently became the exclusive distributor of ORCA in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Europe and the Middle East.  

Since then we’ve developed partnerships with leading international organisations like Veolia and we’ve changed the way that many businesses deal with their food waste around the world. Energy efficiency and water recycling are also in our sights.  

But there’s so much more work to do. We’d love you to be part of our revolution. Join us.

Iugis Food Waste Solutions

Our Mission is Simple
To deliver new, good quality clothing and shoes to people in our community who are doing it tough.

We believe that we can restore dignity and hope for men, women and children who are going through a difficult time by providing the opportunity to choose a complete wardrobe of new clothes.

New clothes, rescued from potential landfill, available at no cost to those who need it most.

To date, we have partnered with 100 charities who we collaborate with to access to people in need.

More than 8 million dollars worth of clothes have been donated from brands such as Seafolly, Camilla & Marc, Specialty Fashion Group, The Iconic, General Pants, Bendon, and many more. To date, we have reached over 150,000 people across Australia.

Our vision is to clothe 200,000 people annually by 2020 across Australia.

We are currently supporting the people who are homeless, youth at risk, Indigenous communities, survivors of domestic violence, refugees or long term unemployed. People in need of comfortable clothing to enable them to feel safe and warm, or people seeking clothing for a new job.

Thread Together

The backpack made from airbags, seatbelts and an old car's buckle. They are sustainable, functional and truly one-of-a-kind.

We are Michael and Adrian, the two founders of Airpaq. To gather inspiration for an assignment during our studies we visited a scrapyard and stumbled over some airbags and seat belts. Still the same night we created the first prototype. We were immediately hooked by the idea and spent every free minute working on our project. In 2017 we launched a crowdfunding campaign to turn Airpaq into reality. The Successful campaign was..

Airpaq Up-cycled Backpacks

Earth Technologies is an award winning environmentally friendly high-performance surfboard and stand-up paddleboard production facility based in the South Bay, Los Angeles. Launched as the first of its kind, co-owners Ryan Harris and Todd Patterson had one mission in mind: to demonstrate to the greater surfing community that there are greener and more sustainable surfboard production methods that do not compromise the performance of the board.

In January 2017, the original factory and organization closed its doors, but that did not stop Ryan in his ecoboard pursuits. He set up a new shop in Torrance, CA as the world's first Zero Waste Manufacturing surfboard production factory. In proper eco fashion, the crew was able to recycle the original lumber, ducting, electrical and majority of the original factory components, resulting in a 75% recycled build out for the new factory. Key improvements were made to every production room to maximize our quality while producing more boards to fill the increased demand. Our goal is to make the most sustainable boards as possible by reducing our carbon footprint and minimizing our environmental impact.

Earth Technologies looks to improve on the use of advanced renewable and recycled materials for surfboard construction. To reduce our production's carbon footprint, we use the best alternative sustainable materials from recycled and recyclable foam blanks, to Super Sap bio epoxies from Entropy Resins, sustainably harvested veneers, organic plant based cloths, and a volcanic rock based composite.

We are committed to better, cleaner, and greener construction methods. We have teamed up with major industry brands such as Pyzel, Maurice Cole, Lost and Channel Islands to glass boards in our eco-friendly way and expand the visibility of green glassing. In addition to working with Sustainable Surf to promote ecoboards and greener construction methods, we regularly do live glassing events to educate the surfing community such as The Pier Paddle Fest in Santa Monica, factory tours, and more.

Earth Technologies

We believe in people working together to help bridge the gap between our everyday modern needs, and those of the planet.

The Real Cost of Technology
Innovation isn’t slowing down. New tech products are introduced everyday. Meanwhile, the lifespan of your electronics is getting shorter, and the waste continues to pile up. We believe it’s our responsibility to counter this reality anyway we can.

One-for-One Tech Recovery Project
Imagine a world where all electronics makers offer end-of-life solutions for everything they produce. This idea led us to including a disposable bag with every product sold, so you could send back all your old or unused tech for safe, responsible reclamation, and close the loop on electronic waste.

Better Materials
80% of a product’s environmental impact is decided at the design stage. This is why we select only the best materials for the sake of durability, performance, and sustainability. Sky’s the limit for recycled plastic, organic hemp, recycled aluminum, plant-based bioplastic, and more. Sure, it’s not always the easy route. But, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Plastic-Free Packaging
We know one of the most effective methods for any goods company to reduce waste starts with packaging. All our packaging is 100% plastic-free, made from recycled scrap paper with no harmful inks or dyes. Fully recyclable and biodegradable.

Honest Pricing
As consumers ourselves, we strive to offer the best products, using the best materials available, at prices that maximizes the value to you.

Enlightened Suppliers
We only work with suppliers who share our values on workers’ rights, sustainable materials, and reducing environmental impact. Our Supplier Code of Conduct summarizes our goals to ensure strict standards are always met.

Nimble - Sustainable materials

Plastic Whale is a social enterprise with a mission - we want plastic-free waters. Worldwide. We achieve this by showing others that economic value can be created from plastic waste, involving as many people and businesses as possible within the pillars: We Collect, We Create, We Educate.

We collect plastic waste
We collect as much plastic waste with as many people as possible. We started in the Netherlands but we aim to involve people across the globe.

We create amazing products
We create economic value from plastic waste. We currently make boats and office furniture. The more we create, the more raw materials we need, the more positive impact we make.

We educate those around us
With our school program we reach thousands of young people in NL and internationally. With presentations and workshops we reach and inspire companies and individuals to get involved with our mission.

Plastic Whale

Yes, it's Cannabis!
DopeKicks are made from hemp, a sativa branch. In fact, hemp is so strong that Henry Ford built a car out of it.

Each shoe
> 100g of old, recycled shoes 
> 72% less CO2 used
> 70% less water used

Strong and Flexible
One of the great advantages of rubber is its strength and durability. That’s why it is used in cars. At the same time, rubber can deform and go back to its original shape even after years of action.

100% Waterproof
We wanted to make something for the active person, the challenger, the explorer, something that could provide the best experience under any conditions, and that’s why we built it waterproof.

Upcycled Rubber Composites
"Our soles are made out of our competitors old sneakers".
By buying our kicks you are directly contributing to remove old dirty shoes from the environment and transform them into something good. 

Dope Kicks Sneakers   

There's more to America's favorite pastime than runs, hits, and errors: the smell of hot dogs and popcorn, the thrill of hitting a homer, the perfect chill of a cold beer on a hot August afternoon... Enjoy an instant replay of the bat-on-ball crack every time you crack a cold one with these Baseball Bat Bottle Openers. Handmade from authentic game-day bats swung by MLB players, each opener comes gift-boxed with a story card including instructions for its special hologram number, indicating which game the bat was used in. Bats from the US, hardware from China. Hand-assembled in the US. Colors may vary.

Due to the recycled and handmade nature of this item, each is unique and will vary.

Disappointed when the MTA filled in the "Y" cutout of their classic subway tokens, Ward Wallau was inspired to find a fun way to incorporate the unaltered tokens into cufflinks. He wanted to prove to the MTA that the original tokens were worthy of celebrating and repurposing and, after 11 years of "no," Ward became the first licensee of the New York City MTA. Since that time, this "authenticity hound," has assembled and grew his team of artisans, production staff, and authenticators in Berkeley, California, where they re-imagine nostalgic artifacts as unique gifts that tell a story. Ward loves breathing new life into things that already exist, be it letterpress blocks, a wooden seat from Wrigley Field, or a bat broken at a Major League baseball game. "This business is ever-challenging, dynamic, and satisfying," he says. "It's not a good day if you don't learn something new!"

MLB Game Used Baseball Bat Bottle Opener

At Vinylux, we transform vintage vinyl into a suite of handmade, upcycled products bringing new life to recycled vinyl records!

Davis began molding vinyl records over custom-made forms as art of a graduate school thesis project. His designs preserve the look and feel of the old vinyl, including the original record labels, while it  creating new, useful, elegant objects. Since 2002, hundreds of thousands of old records - past their playing prime - have been collected and transformed into everything from clocks to guitar amps.

Vinylux gets its supply of recycled vinyl from record shops, dealers, collectors and in some cases, from people's attics. Every year, we re-cycle and reuse approximately 250,000 records or almost 55,000 pounds of material.

Eco-Friendly Production
Committed to energy efficient manufacturing, the majority of the production process is done in our Philadelphia studio. We do not throw away any part of the record: album covers are converted into sketchbooks and notecards„ and leftover material is collected by paper recyclers.

Vintage Vinyl Design

Looptworks [ looped wurks ] noun. A Portland, Oregon based business that re-purposes and upcycles abandoned, pre-consumer and post-consumer materials into limited edition products.

At Looptworks, the only thing we scrap is the typical way of doing business. We're a design brand on a mission: to use only what already exists.

All the materials used to create Looptworks products at one time were headed to the landfill, or worse. We intercept and utilize these industry excess materials, transforming them into new, useful products — a process known as upcycling. Our sustainable, eco-friendly products are made in limited editions, and in the process save materials from landfills or incinerators.
Choosing to support upcycled goods over products made using virgin materials, keeps quality excess from being disposed of. In the process, limited natural resources are conserved and carbon emissions are reduced.
To us though, upcycling is just the starting point. Our long term goal is to work towards closed-loop (Loopt) solutions in manufacturing, hence our name: "looped works".

Upcycling is the process of transforming materials destined to be destroyed into new products of higher value and environmental purpose. Reusing waste without destroying it takes far less energy than breaking it down to be remade into something new.

How is upcycling different from recycling?
We're glad you asked. In fact, we wrote a whole blog post about the differences between upcycling, downcycling and recycling.

The short answer? The process of upcycling adds value to the materials. The other decreases its value. Most often, what we consider recycling is actually downcycling, where the material or product is transformed into something with less value. Regardless of how you approach it, any form of reuse, whether it's upcycling, downcycling or recycling, is good for the environment, and all practices reduce our impact upon it. 

How does upcycling save water and air?
The problem: There is a continued growth of solid waste and in the overuse of Earth’s resources, particularly water. In textile waste alone, the average apparel factory discards about 60,000 pounds of perfectly usable, pre-consumer textiles every single week.

The solution: Upcycling excess and reducing the amount of waste. The benefits of upcycling include resource conservation, saving energy, and saving landfill space. When you buy an upcycled product made from discarded materials, you are directly offsetting the water and energy needed to make new materials from scratch to produce the same product. And in the process you are helping to conserve resources.  

Interested in how we calculate water savings? We wrote an entire post dedicated to this subject. Click here to read more on how Looptworks products conserve water, and how we calculate water conservation.

Sustainable products and services in Recycling