STORY: The little bits that end up in the recycling bins of Taiwan bottle caps, delivery packaging, forks and knives
even unwanted plastic toys are transforming into something new, something they want to keep.
Everyone here has brought plastic trash from home
to shred, soften, and forge it into something more fashionable.
Arthur Huang founded Miniwiz, the company that runs this Taipei workshop, the 'Trash Kitchen.'
Arthur Huang, Founder of Miniwiz
"What we are trying to show in the Trash Kitchen is to let you see, feel, and touch within minutes how this process can actually works without secondary pollution and you can actually turn (create) something of value directly in front of you rather than going through this (recycling) infrastructure and never really happen."
Miniwiz calls this the ‘miniTrashpresso’,
a mobile recycling machine that the company developed itself.
The company uses it to transform plastic and organic waste
into tiles, bricks, hangers, and other everyday items.
Customers can get hands on with it by melting and shaping their waste -
-into a trendy pair of sunglasses in just two hours.
Kora Hsieh is an editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar Taiwan -
- who says the project is a great way to promote sustainable fashion.
Kora Hsieh, Editor-in-chief, Harper's Bazaar Taiwan
"Every single step of the recycling process incurs cost, therefore cost control becomes a problem. I think when it comes to environmental protection and fashion, recycling processes are present, but if they are to be truly or wholly implemented, there is still a very long way to go. As for the consumers, it is important for them to get first-hand experience, so a workshop like this is a very good start."
Taiwan's Ministry of Environment is known for its comprehensive waste sorting system,
generated a record 11.58 million tonnes of waste in 2023.
A little over half of that was recyclable.
Customers told Reuters the workshop inspired them to think twice about producing more trash.
"Everyone kept saying 'recycling is high energy footprint, it's really dirty, oh, that's why we rather not do it, or reusing is very difficult'. So, we are trying to show you reusing saves a lot of carbon footprint because we measure the electricity here, we measure the air quality here. And then, you know what, every pair of, let's say sunglasses, we make in this process, you are reducing around 400 grams of carbon."
