According to a 2017 scientific journal report, since the Industrial Revolution in 1950, the world has produced more than 9.1 billion tons of plastic. Since plastic cannot decompose naturally like other substances, up to 34% of plastic waste accumulates in landfills, and even more is scattered on land, sunk in the ocean depths, and in lakes, leading to ingestion and even death of marine life. Statistics show that approximately 8 million tons of plastic waste flow into the ocean annually, threatening the lives of up to 800 species. A 2016 UN report stated that marine debris is a key factor threatening marine and coastal life. In Taiwan, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) also jointly released the "Taiwan Marine Debris Management Action Plan" today (13th), publicly declaring a complete ban on single-use plastic products, including shopping plastic bags, disposable tableware, takeaway beverage cups, and plastic straws, by 2030. Furthermore, in 2019, Taiwan will strive to become the first country in the world to begin restricting the use of plastic straws, hoping to achieve the goal of a "plastic-free ocean" as soon as possible. In response to global environmental issues, more and more designers and industries are investing in green design, especially in the development of products made from recycled materials, which has sprung up like mushrooms in recent years. How to showcase design power in products and provide the market with a green consumption option has become a constant goal for designers. Looking at products made from recycled ocean plastics, it's easy to see that over 80% emphasize material research and reuse, such as Helen Sandow's black ocean plastic bottles or Ecoalf, which uses materials to create textiles. However, some independent small studios are using the power of design to transform recycled elements into product innovation, incorporating brand image thinking, so that "recycled" products also possess design quality. Fitzroy Navy Rum: Recycling Coca-Cola Labels from the Beach into Rum Bottles. Due to increasingly serious marine pollution, trash is everywhere on Dutch beaches, especially Coca-Cola labels. Amsterdam-based creative agency Fitzroy came up with a great way to turn trash into treasure—recycling these wastes and remanufacturing them into packaging for their rum. The project was titled "From Waste to Wasted," a name that later became a distinctive feature of the product's visual label. The product's materials are entirely sourced from common beach trash; the bottle cap is made from melted and compressed discarded Coca-Cola labels. This unique process leverages the properties of plastic and its processing characteristics, heating the plastic label to near its melting point and then molding it using color mixing and flow properties to create a marble-like texture, successfully giving discarded plastic a new visual life. Besides the fully recycled cap, the bottle itself is made from glass bottles collected from the beach. The overall packaging emphasizes simplicity and minimalism, encouraging consumers to reuse empty bottles, achieving a recycling effect. Fitzroy named this rum Fitzroy Navy Rum. This name doesn't represent the design firm Fitzroy, but rather comes from Captain Robert Fitzroy, who commanded the HMS Beagle, the three-masted sailing ship that carried Darwin on his famous circumnavigation of the globe. Founded by David Stover, Ben Kneppers, and Kevin Ahearn, three founders from Los Angeles, California, their passion for surfing and outdoor sports led them to recognize the severity of ocean plastic pollution. They traveled to a small fishing village in Chile and established the "Net Positiva" fishing net recycling program, providing financial support to local workers and participating communities to incentivize them to retrieve fishing nets from the ocean and send them to recycling centers. The nets are then sent back to a recycling and manufacturing plant in San Diego, California, where they are cleaned, melted, and shredded into recycled plastic pellets. These pellets are then injected into steel molds to create ocean-themed plastic skateboards. The streamlined skateboard's fish-shaped silhouette, forked tail fin, and fish-scale pattern, combined with a blue paint job, subtly convey a sense of care for marine life and allude to the recycled fishing nets from the ocean. The brand is named "Bureo," a Mapuche word meaning "wave." Bureo emphasizes that each skateboard reduces ocean plastic by 30 square feet, and to date, they have recycled over 80,000 kg of discarded fishing nets from Chilean coastal fishing villages. Bureo invests profits from its product sales in wildlife conservation and support for local fishing communities, while also providing education for youth in Chile and North America, setting a good example for ecological sustainability. Taiwan Marine Waste Plastic Recycling Design: In 2017, the Taiwan Plastics Center's Sustainable Design Group, in conjunction with the "Green Little Giant Mentoring Project," co-organized the "Blue Ocean, Whale Hands Protect" beach cleanup and environmental education activities with Blue Whale International. This initiative promoted a comprehensive approach encompassing event organization, waste sorting, green design, recycling, and the development of green products. In addition to a beach and sea cleanup along the Kenting coast on June 8th, World Oceans Day, collecting 233 kilograms of trash, the collected marine plastic was repurposed through product design, embodying the spirit of a circular economy. Marine Plastic Recycling Bag: The main material of this bag is recycled PET fabric, while the ropes and netting are made from fishing nets collected from the beach. The internal lining and fish-shaped decorative panels are made from crushed plastic pellets from the beach, which were washed, crushed, and heat-pressed. The overall design emphasizes simplicity and cleanliness, possessing a unique aesthetic appeal, and using blue to express the beauty of the ocean. After prototyping and confirmation, 30 small-batch production runs were completed. Like Buero's fishing net recycled skateboard, the key to products made from marine waste through plastic injection molding lies in a stable waste supply, recycling and processing (granulation), and injection molding manufacturers. Through the "Green Little Giant Mentoring Program" providing guidance on marine plastic recycling design, the Plastics Center, with the assistance of local fishing port management units, obtained nearly 30 kilograms of nylon 6 fishing nets. After plastic recycling granulation and technical improvements, Hua Mei Optical used 720 brand steel molds and injection molding to produce 200 pairs of 100% recycled fishing net glasses, now sold in limited quantities and donated to domestic and international environmental groups. Sustainable green design is a global consensus in economic development, and marine plastics have become an increasingly important issue in recent years. The Plastics Processing and Decoration Center (PIDC), with its professional background in plastic materials, can effectively transform materials from waste into products through design value-added, infusing them with green design elements to give products innovative life and brand image. To enhance the green competitiveness of enterprises, the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs commissioned the PIDC's Quality, Environmental and Safety Department to implement the "SME Green Little Giant Guidance Program," dedicated to assisting manufacturers in meeting international environmental requirements and promoting green product design and marketing. Enterprises interested in further green-related issues can visit the SME Green Environmental Protection Information Network at http://green.pidc.org.tw/index.php, or contact Ms. Hsieh Ming-kuei at 04-2359-5900 ext. 301; or email janet@pidc.org.tw for service details.
