The extremely populous city generates a large amount of waste that could potentiallybe up-cycled, yet designers often do not know where to find it.
Although some of them have worked out that getting the support of the companiescreating the waste can help (organizers of the trade fair workshop toured industrial zonesto convince companies to donate raw materials), Lo said the biggest headache is storage.
“Things are usually dumped in huge amounts but most up-cyclers don’t havewarehouses. We’ve been keeping our materials in a school and I don’t know if we’ll have todump them when the new term begins,” he said. “It would be better if there was a centerto store all the materials collected and sort them fairly. That way everyone would be able tofind what they want in one place.”
Ultimately, to run a sustainable business, though, budding entrepreneurs need to havea sound business plan, he added.
“Not only do you need to build a material-collection network and make fine designs,you need the right producers and useful marketing strategies,” he said. “After all, greenproducts still need to make sense.”
Due to the difficulties in finding raw materials, most up-cycling businesses in HongKong use just one type of material and have limited production volumes. High rental costsacross the city also mean the vast majority of traders sell their goods online.
Covers prove popular
Wandering along the aisles of the Carpet, Banner and Leather show, one of thedisplays that stood out was the one by Billy Potts and Joseph Ng, two friends who make arange of products from taxi seat covers.
The duo launched Handsome Bag Company online after discovering Hong Kong taxidrivers change the covers in their cabs up to four times a year. They use the fabric to makebags, glass covers and iPhone cases.
“Billy came up with the idea to make bags with the material,” said Ng, 25, who worksfull-time as an architect. “I thought it was crazy - it’s such a humble fabric, just gray andblack - but I like crazy ideas.
“Both of us were born and raised in Hong Kong and we’re proud of it,” he said. “Sowe wanted to challenge ourselves by keeping everything local: Designed here, sourced hereand made here.”
Although the company has been running just for a few months, preparations actuallybegan in early 2009. It took almost a year to find all the suppliers and producers theyneeded.
“I approached lots of crafts people,” said Potts, a 24-year-old lawyer, as he helped Ngset up a stall at the Mini Design Mart, a bustling weekend flea market at a creative artscenter in Kowloon district. “They gave me a dozen reasons but basically the answer was thesame: No. They thought it was crazy.”
Their luck only changed when they found a working women’s association, whichagreed to sew the seat covers.
“We pay (the women) a fair price. They proposed the price and we accepted it. Weare not trying to exploit people to maximize profit,” said Potts, who explained he and Ngspend much of their spare time collecting, cleaning, cutting and sorting the fabric. Thedesigners try to reuse as many old materials in their products as possible, such as makingthe straps on their bags out of taxi seat belts.
“Ironically, it’s actually more expensive to use old (seat belts),” said Potts. “They cancost up to HK20, whereas new ones can be bought for just HK5 downtown. Also, oldseat belts are hard to collect because no one keeps them. They’re hard to unscrew so peoplejust dump them with the car.”
Despite the trials of setting up the company, the duo were rewarded after just threeweeks of launching their online business with 20 orders.
During the last Mini Design Mart in Kowloon, about half of their stock was sold,with one shopper even buying the taxi roof light they were using as a display. So far, themost popular item is a black, “dull-looking” tote that retails at HK1,000.
“Our products are not perfect yet by any means,” said Potts. “We’ve had a lot ofadvice from friends and customers, such as adding a separate layer inside or using brightercolors for the lining. We take them all seriously.”
FIRST PERSON | SUE WONG MING-WAI
Style cut from a different clothEditor’s note: Sue Wong Ming-wai, 27, is a Hong Kong designer and co-founder ofDeja Vu Creation, which makes products from old banners.
I got the idea walking through the University of Hong Kong. Every year,student clubs make banners, which are still new when they’re dumped. With eightuniversities, each with more than 100 clubs, that’s a lot of banners.
I decided to use them to makeeco-friendly products but I quicklyfound out they are not so easy tofind.
Advertising companies eitherthink my company is too smallor refuse to give us banners forcopyright reasons. How couldChanel allow its logo to appearon our bags? Some schools andcommunity centers have beensupportive, though, and are happyto let us deal with the waste. Theirbanners are pretty new and muchcleaner than the ones on the streets.
Some of the banners still have markings, which show where they come fromor show a particular attitude. People love that.
I study every sheet to pick out the best bits and decide whether it should beused for one big bag or several smaller ones. Also, to get the best appearance andfeel, the material is folded in different ways for each product. It’s always surprisingto see what comes out.
I work with a factory in Shenzhen in Guangdong province. The company issophisticated at making leather bags but banners are new to them. Even the glueis difficult.
Both of us are exploring and, although research and development is slow,we’re determined to make the best bags so they last longer. I bet no one handlesbanners better than us.
The bags are complicated to make but I’m trying to keep my prices low. Mybanner pencil cases cost HK49 (6). We pay the factory HK10 per pencil caseand HK40 for a purse but the overall costs stretch to far more. My partner andI can only carry 50 banners every time we go to the factory, which is in a remotearea of Shenzhen.