Advancing the Circular Economy by exploring new ways to repurpose waste starting with project #HACKTHEMATTRESS

For the past couple of years, I’ve been learning about the circular economy through volunteering, competitions and workshops exploring ways to ‘upcycle’ waste materials.

It’s been a really fun journey going out to farms, learning about the logistics, process and challenges of growing organic food. On one occasion we found a local restaurant that needed to dispose of a tonne of Oyster shells every week, driving it down to the ocean and dumping it.

A group of us took this waste off their hands, took it out to the local farm and placed it in the open for a couple weeks for the insects to eat and clean all the excess. One step closer to finding a solution.

The bottom line is ‘One persons waste is another persons business especially if you’re a creative entrepreneur.’

While researching materials, I learned that Polyurethane Foam used in mattresses is actually really tough to dispose, I started brainstorming use cases for ways to repurpose existing products that use this material… Here’s a short video workshop on my latest project #HackTheMattress. I enjoyed making this as it also gave me a chance to improve my video editing/ production skills.

I hope you enjoy it, please like, share, donate money if you can and help evolve this initiative.