As environmental issues become more important and recognized worldwide, efforts to increase and help the environment in different ways have exponentially risen as innovators and inventors worldwide look for different ways and methods to help decrease waste and pollution. Amongst some of the basic ways that efforts in recycling, composting, and saving energy and resources for the environment have come up in the past couple of years, here are some of the newest and most inventive recycling innovations to date.
Re-usable Cups to Inspire Innovation in Recycling
It’s undeniable to say that getting a morning coffee is almost a traditional amongst most people worldwide. But with enjoying a great caffeinated drink comes along the use paper and plastic cups. Although most people believe that their cups are being properly recycled even if thrown in the recycle, out of the millions being used yearly, only a very small percentage are being successfully recycled. In order to help the efforts for saving and cleaning the ocean (which shown staggering amounts of being contaminated with increasing plastic), CupClub is a new service and way to help decrease the amounts of plastic cups used daily by avid coffee drinkers. Founded in 2015, CupClub offers cafes, offices, head-quaters, airports, and campuses technology integrated cups in which consumers can use the cup and then return to a drop off point somewhere else, rather than throwing them out. The cups come with tracking devices so that the cup and lid are both returned to the drop off point. Once dropped off, CupClub picks up the cups, cleans them and readies them for the next re-use. This service helps to reduce 47% of plastic packaging – but is only available in the UK for now.
How Design Combines Through Recycling Innovations
A huge environmental issue that continues to be a growing problem is the amount of waste being accumulated on beaches worldwide. Luckily, there have been numerous efforts taken to help clean beaches. The Supercyclers is a design collective in which renowned designers work to create sustainable and aesthetically pleasing objectives to help raise awareness about the issue of plastic waste. The items range from cups, bowls, kitchen tools to actual pieces of furniture. Not only does this collective help to recycle and reuse waste but shows interesting and new inventive ways to innovate and create bigger things out of what was once considered trash.
If you want to see more about how waste taken from beaches can be redesigned into furniture, check out how fishing nets are being used to make office chairs!
The war against plastic straws has caught the attention amongst major innovators as the harmful effects of plastic straws being polluted into oceans and beaches has reached new dangers to marine wildlife as well as environmental issues. The infamous metal straw has become immensely popular amongst major beverage businesses and retailers – however the battle against plastics straws has yet to be conquered and people are looking for more alternatives than just paper or metal straws. Loliware is an innovation in the straw dilemma where they preach that they’ve created a straw that is “Designed to disappear”, stating that the real problem with straws is not to make a new straw, but to eliminate them totally. Loliware have created a straw that is made from 100% food grade materials, meaning that after using the straw (that looks, feels and acts like plastic), you can eat it! The straws are plant-based, hyper-compostable, and marine degradable, so even if you don’t feel like eating the seaweed-based straw, it can degrade on its own after being thrown out.
Want to learn about another edible environmental innovation? Check out our blog on disposable cutlery!
A Recycling Innovation App
A different approach to innovation in recycling, rather than creating a physical product, Closca is an app that works as recycling innovation through how it helps to locate water fountains to refill water bottles. So far, the water bottle has over 56 thousand refill stations worldwide located on the app. The genius of this innovative app is that it helps encourage users to located refill stations use reusable water bottles rather than supporting the plastic water bottle business. The app allows its user to track their positive impact they’ve made helping the planet and shows them how much money they’ve saved through re-using water bottles.
If you have a great new invention and you’d like to learn more about this process, get in touch with MAKO here and visit our website to find out more. Feel free to give us a call at 1-888-MAKO and we can set you up on a call with our product analyst!
About: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts The Product Startup Podcast, the industry's leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers. Click HERE to learn more about MAKO Design + Invent!