物尽其用——其他企业的废弃物能否让您的供应链更具可持续性？

A sustainable supply chain is no longer a nice to have – whether you’re an established business or just starting out. 

You’re probably very aware of your own waste – what you’re producing, how much of it and what happens to it. But what if waste – specifically that generated by other businesses and industries – could also be your raw material? 

 

 

Photo Credit: FREITAG/Peter Würmli

 

That’s exactly the case for Swiss bag and accessories company FREITAG, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. From the very beginning, it has used old truck tarpaulins as the primary material for its bags. This has stopped countless tonnes of waste going to landfill.

The brand has also branched out into recycling other used materials to keep them in circulation for as long as possible. 

The knock-on benefit of using recycled truck tarpaulins is that every FREITAG bag is a little bit different from the rest. Each bag also has a long second life thanks to the durable material, which means consumers have to buy less often. FREITAG even offers a repair service to keep its products out of the bin for as long as possible. 

FREITAG 虽是先行者，但并非唯一一家在原材料来源方面大展创意的公司。

 

图片来源：坦维·夏尔马

利用当地废弃材料进行创作

Are You Mad 成立于 2020 年，是一家具有社会责任感的创意机构。该机构最初致力于对过剩库存和样品进行升级再造，但很快便发现了解决伦敦塑料垃圾问题的契机。

Last year, the company opened the world’s most visible plastic recycling studio in the heart of London’s Carnaby Street. All the fixtures and fittings, as well as the products on sale, are made from the plastic waste of businesses, shops, and restaurants in the local area. 

此后，“Are You Mad”搬到了附近的伯威克街（Berwick Street）的一处固定场所，在那里继续将塑料废弃物从垃圾填埋场分流出来，并赋予其第二次生命，将其制成从家具到香炉等各种各样的物品。分拣和制造过程都在现场进行，访客可以一览无余，以此凸显塑料污染问题的严重性。

Over in New York, Zero Waste Daniel is another young business intent on reducing waste through creative solutions. Designer Daniel Silverstein uses pre-consumer waste sourced from the local garment industry to create unique patchwork clothing and accessories. 

Incredibly, the only waste that the brand produces itself is floor sweepings, which Zero Waste Daniel claims takes nearly a year to fill a standard rubbish bag. 

 

图片来源：Davisuko

这对消费者为何重要

As with FREITAG and Are You Mad, the use of waste materials means all of Zero Waste Daniel’s garments are unique. With exclusivity typically associated with luxury and high-end brands, it is interesting to see companies achieve this by using the parts others throw away. Consumers get to own a unique piece while also reducing the impact that item has on the environment.

It also means that every item these brands sell comes with a story attached that the buyer can share with others. Every time someone compliments their bag or their t-shirt or home décor they can explain where it came from and that it was made from waste. That’s far more interesting than saying it came from a shelf in any store. And it’s important not to overlook the value this has for the consumer.

Yes, most people would say that they want to be more sustainable when asked. But buying habits don’t always reflect that, especially when the sustainable option comes with a higher price tag. The uniqueness of each piece and the story behind it are some of the best tools these brands have to convince consumers to buy better.

与该物品及其所代表意义之间的情感联系至关重要，这样每当他们看到、使用或佩戴它时，都会对自己的这次购买感到满意。

 

Photo Credit: FREITAG/Elias Bötticher

What’s Beyond Waste?

Sadly, even waste materials that have had a second life as another product will likely end up in rubbish streams eventually. All three of these businesses know that. As well as using other businesses’ waste as raw material, they’re also all working to reduce that waste in the first place – or create more sustainable alternatives.

例如，“零废弃丹尼尔”（Zero Waste Daniel）曾与Alice + Olivia等品牌合作推出系列产品，通过重新设计产品来减少废弃物。“Are You Mad”则与企业合作，帮助它们减少废弃物并优化生产流程。

FREITAG has spent the last few years developing a new prototype truck tarpaulin with partners that can be endlessly recycled. It’s a tall order with the material having to hold up the stresses and strains of being on the road, including all sorts of weather, as well as have enough longevity to be turned into FREITAG bags after it’s no longer suitable for use on trucks.

It may be some time still before FREITAG and its collaborators have a workable solution. But it shows that, with a bit of creativity and dedication, environmentally damaging waste doesn’t have to be a given. Using waste as raw material isn’t just a path to a more sustainable supply chain but to reducing that waste in the first place.