The Handy glass from London-based Pentatonic is made from an increasingly common object: smartphones. Specifically, melted down screens. “In smartphone production, there are six to eight screens wasted for every device made,” explains co-founder and chief marketing officer Jamie Hall. “The wastage is off-the-scale terrifying.” Pentatonic is one of a new wave of startups designing products from PET plastic, cigarette butts, even food waste.
Upcycling isn’t new – but it’s being invigorated by new technology, from design to collection. “We rely on 21st century manufacturing techniques from the automotive and consumer electronics industry,” explains CEO Johann Boedecker.
Pentatonic’s engineers even work with waste-collection firms to develop their own materials. Progress in materials science, supply chains and old-fashioned activism are encouraging big names to get in on the act: adidas and Stella McCartney have introduced recycled plastic waste products in a partnership with Parley for the Oceans.
Kent-based Elvis & Kresse has signed a deal with Burberry to reuse its leather offcuts by stitching them into a robust fabric. Pentatonic will even buy back products when consumers are done with them – a model of the increasingly popular circular economy movement. To Hall, the economics are starting to line up in the environment’s favour. “In this day and age, the consumer wants to know where the materials come from and how they’re reused,” he says. “We want to show people how incredible trash is.”
Really: Launched in 2013, this Copenhagen-based startup turns end-of-life cotton and wool into Solid Textile Board and Acoustic Textile Felt.
Ananas Anam: Based in London and founded by Carmen Hijosa, Ananas Anam's fabric, Piñatex, is an inexpensive substitute for leather, made from pineapple waste.
Thread International: This Pittsburgh-based firm turns plastic bottles collected in Haiti and Honduras into fabric for brands such as Timberland.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
