A New Life for Paper

The project aims to upcycle paper waste in the tourism industry into new products. After each exhibition, museums discard significant amounts of brochures. Typically, paper is downcycled up to 7 times to cardboard. We therefore discover paper's untapped potential and upcycle museums' waste into souvenirs. This approach encourages appreciation for our shared resources while leaving less trace behind.

Today's trash is the treasured resources of tomorrow. Together we are initiating a world that embraces circularity and values our shared material resources. We do so by pushing further, to explore and discover materials' untapped potential; re-thinking how we use and discard materials today.

In 2017, the total annual revenue from the souvenir industry was 17 billion dollars. Last year 17 new souvenir shops opened in Copenhagen alone. The rest of the tourism industry is moving towards a greener shift, whilst the souvenir market has been neglected.

We work closely with Kongernes Samling to recover their waste. From here, we re-work it, design, and transform it into souvenirs. 

Within only 4 months, we had collected 381 books, 16,200 brochures, and 16,050 bookmarks, among others.

As you are looking at this postcard, more than 199 tons of paper has already been produced.

Even though paper is seen as the most recyclable material in the world, there is still 26% of paper end up at landfills. With all the paper we waste each year, we can build a 12 foot high wall of paper from New York to California.

Still, if paper is sorted correctly, it can only be downcycled up to seven times to cardboards, egg boxes and newspaper. But it is such a beautiful material that serves as a carrier for images and texts, and can even become an object itself.