Left: Collected and compressed plastic. Right: NOPRECs facility for making granulate from industrial marine waste.

How We Joined the Fight Against Plastic Waste

3 min readApr 20, 2021

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In 2019, while visiting beautiful Hoddevika in western norway. and the Nordic Ocean Watch silo filled with tonnes of hand picked ocean plastic, we thought to ourselves:

What are we going to do with all this trash?

As plastic waste collection grows on the global agenda, this question of plastic waste recycling is more pressing than ever. Collected, cleaned and shredded plastic trash is, after all, still plastic trash.

Recycling plastic waste becomes circular only when it re-enters the cycle as something valuable. We believe that product design is the key to circular plastic in three areas:

1. Creating value from waste

A high demand for products made from recycled plastics will create a market demand for recycled plastic waste. This creates economic and ethical incentive to collect, sort, shred and granulate waste. This process can become more resilient, meaning less plastic in in nature and landfills.
We give waste a value.

Tabletops for Tunco Restaurant, made from recycled keyboards and computer mice

2. Discover new uses for recycled materials

Product design is all about solving problems. Not only for the user, but also for finding creative ways to use materials that are not used today. One example is the tabletops and kitchens we’ve made with plastic sheets from The Good Plastic Company.

We’ve built a kitchen and tables from textile industry spools, on commission for Scenario Arkitekter, MAD Arkitekter and SANE.

3. Move waste upwards in the value chain

The higher a material is up on the value chain, the longer it will stay there before having to be incinerated. This also makes economic sense — as virgin plastic is cheaper than recycled plastics, design, aesthetics and storytelling can add value for the consumer. Design should get as much waste as possible back into the cycle, as high up in the value chain as possible, to keep it there for as long as possible.

Left: Our first project, the Hoddevika Bowl, designed by our own Maria Berg Leirvåg. Right: Some examples of sheets made from 100% recycled, 100% recycled plastic sheets from our partner The Good Plastic Company.

Join us in changing the perception of plastic

All our projects seek to change the perception of waste being worthless. Not just by talking about it, but designing, developing and selling high quality products to businesses and consumers. Through our new collaboration with The Good Plastic Company, There is few limits to what we can make.

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Norwegian Trash Talk
Norwegian Trash Talk

Written by Norwegian Trash Talk

Trash Talk er Norwegian Trash’ blogg og nyhetsbrev. Her får du nyheter, hot takes om plastgjenvinning og inspirerende designcaser fra hele verden.