Being joined by Adele Foucart, one of the founders of Precious Plastic Shanghai was an inspiring experience. Her journey, decorated with perseverance and hard work, is one to learn from. Adele is passionate about waste management which showed in the way she initially founded her business and is still evident when giving her talk. It all started off when she identified that 80% of plastic waste from the land ends up entering the oceans. Using their personal income, her team started a unique waste management initiative where each member incorporated their hobbies and line of expertise in order to work their business. Eventually, this startup evolved into a corporation that has over 40 clients, including huge names like BMW, and managed to create innovative products.
Reaching over the count of 9000, Precious Plastic Shanghai has done an amazing job at upcycling items, considering recycling isn’t as effective as I first thought before joining the class. They sell a variety of items including stools, jewelry, and sugar straws. A unique product that had the class shocked, mainly me considering I never thought of the possibility of incorporating sugar into making edible straws. I am fully on board with Adele’s journey and mission. I believe that we have to collectively work on issues we chose to ignore, and start acknowledging and spreading awareness about them as they are directly affecting us and the generations to come. In addition, major corporations hosting pop-up workshops seems like an effective starting point to educate their employees and enforce a sustainable, waste-free future mission.
One thing I’ll take with me after this class is that a single individual’s efforts never go to waste. Adele advised us to follow the path that interests us the most, and that there is always room for growth. A single idea, such as binding materials using plastic, although not as effective today, might be the norm tomorrow.
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