Renewed waste with an aesthetic flair
Although he graduated from Harvard University with a Master of Architecture degree, Arthur Huang did not choose to become an architect. “When I was working on my BA in architecture at Cornell University, I felt that there were big problems with the ‘architecture’ we were studying, and also with ‘green’ architecture.” Asked why he left architecture in favor of waste recycling, he responds: “The topic of my bachelor’s thesis was the relationship between nature and manmade structures, including architectural structures.”
The thrust of his thesis is summed up in two words: zero waste. “Focusing as I did on zero waste, I came to feel that the best solution was recycling and reuse of materials.” A few years later, his ideas led to the birth of Miniwiz, which would go on to overturn people’s understanding of waste recycling.
The recycling industry of the past many years has mainly achieved its objective of environmental protection by taking used materials, pelletizing them, and reconstituting them as usable objects. “But if recycled products don’t make it into consumer markets, all you’re doing is converting one kind of waste into another,” says Huang.
In an effort to achieve zero waste and reintroduce used materials back into the circular economy, Huang’s first idea was to “make recycled materials into totally new materials which would be more useful and durable than the original materials, and could eventually be recycled.”
That led to the birth of an open-access database for upcycled materials. Populated by information from a vast body of materials research and experimentation, the database facilitates efforts to achieve structural strengthening and work out how to combine materials with different characteristics. In the course of these efforts, Miniwiz has obtained 12 invention patents. The company is able to take recycled materials and develop them into new materials. After that, application of different processes expands the range of a reconstituted material’s usefulness, and enhances its durability.
The continually expanding database serves as a solid foundation for Miniwiz. Huang explains: “You take a known material A, multiply by a range of compatible materials available in quantity B, further multiply by usable processes available in quantity C... the number resulting from just this little calculation is over five figures, and that’s the number of materials there are to choose from.” The new materials can be used in everything from clothing, furniture, and interior decorations to building materials. And “material A” is available in endless variety.
But, having resolved the problem of materials, how does one then go about explaining to customers where those materials can be used?
Miniwiz’s Exchange pop-up store on the Italian island of Sardinia features a miniTrashpresso portable waste processing line. Customers bring used plastic items to the store, where in just minutes the trash is converted into new products.