Miniwiz sees waste as a valuable resource, not rubbish. Some 70 engineers and scientists in its Trash Lab - out of 80 staff in total - collect consumer and industrial garbage and process it for re-use. The 13-year-old Taipei-based firm has created 1,200 new materials, many of which are being used in fabric, construction, consumer products and - perhaps most ambitious of all - the wings on a two-seater aircraft that Mr Huang intends to fly (once he's finished his pilot training).
"We will fly with a trash wing," he says proudly. "We had to invent a new material. It's a carbon fibre-like material. It's taken two years' R&D (research and development), but we're almost there."
Miniwiz has created a miniature wind turbine and solar panel from electronic waste and paper that can charge smartphones. And in 2010 it built a nine-floor 130-metre building from bricks made out of 1.5 million plastic bottles for a Taipei garden festival - fully tested for structural strength.
Despite such inventions, a truly circular economy remains far off due to the costs of collecting and processing trash, says Mr Szaky. "The value of garbage is far below the cost of recycling it."
Governments could address this market imbalance through tougher legislation, but Mr Huang also wants countries to commit a percentage of their procurement budgets to recycled products. "It would open the floodgates for all sorts of technological innovation," he says. For Mr Szaky, it is consumers who have the real power. "When consumers make the right choices, producers and retailers will follow."
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45573141
Impressive! If only this was heavily encouraged around the world. We almost need a recycling system that's as automated as waste water processing.
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