A wise man once stood on a stage in front of a crowd of 1000. With one hand he gripped the podium, and with the other he held the very breath of his audience. With power, jubilation and grit he said to them:
“If it is not yours, don’t take it
If you break it, fix it
Don’t say bad things about other people
Live a honorable life
Stand up for good in the world
Lead with dignity
Make a contribution in the world”
Sitting there trying to make sense of it all, I wasn’t exactly sure what it meant nor how could I apply that to my life. So I sat and pondered, reciting each line over and over again in my head. Until it struck me, “was there something else I could do without have to change the world of thought, reorganize an industry, or restrict consumer behaviour.”
Then it hit me! If you break it, fix it!
What a simple set of 6 words, struck deep into the core of my thoughts. When we as consumers break something or create something that isn’t easily recyclable, we often leave it to fade or ship it to landfills. Nevertheless, there are the spirited ones, the creative thinkers, the ones who have this amazing ability to see things differently. These innovators are not solving climate change, but they are showing that past mistakes can be created into new ideas.
Ocean plastic is an ongoing issue that consumers have yet to solve. However, there are companies actively trying to find ways to not only collect and remove these plastics from the ocean, but repurpose them into durable consumer goods. For example, a company by the name of Bureo, located in Chile, are salvaging fish nets from the ocean (these make up 10% of all plastics in the ocean). The compa
ny takes these fish nets, makes it into plastic pelts and in turn creates
great, recycled and fun skateboards. What began as a little project in 2013, the men and women at Bureo have to date recycled more than 175,000 square feet of fish nets from the ocean.
Striving to rid the ocean’s of this harmful waste, Bureo is shifting their focus to educate youth in both Chile and North America not only about their recycling program, but the ability to see a problem and with simple ingenuity, create a fun and positive solution.
If you’re really interested in the repurposing of marine waste you should check out the UBC affiliated club Melt Collective. I have been interested in these kinds of projects for a while, but i tend to be more attracted to artwork made from waste rather than consumer goods. Check out Tom Price http://pokate.com/2011/09/18/tom-price-melt-chair/
Hello Aaron, thank you for such an inspiring post. I find it very interesting how companies are starting to adapt the message “if you break it, fix it” into their core values. I have never heard of BUREO but I believe it is an amazing idea. However, don’t you think it will be hard for them to get a lot of nets in order to make it a sustainable material for their products? The good thing is that Chile is an amazing country with a lot of access to the ocean, but maybe they should also reuse nets in other countries that are close to them such as Argentina. Let me know what you think! -Maria
I think I’ve seen some people on campus with those boards! It also reminded me of Interface, the sustainable carpet manufacturer, as they have a similar program in their business. They call it the “Net Effect”. They work with small fishing villages in the Philippines to clean up ocean waste, especially discarded fishing nets. They then help these villages gain a source of income by facilitating the sale of the nets to Interface’s yarn supplier who then repurposes the waste to nylon for Interface’s carpet tiles. It’s a neat system that help these villages in the Philippines secure a source of income, decreases ocean waste, and improves the sustainability of the carpet manufacturing.