Ecobirdy: Vanessa Yuan and Joris Vanbriel
Photo by Kris Van Exel
Ecobirdy is a design brand that specializes in children’s furniture made with recycled plastic toys, particularly colorful chairs and tables. In doing so, Ecobirdy has developed a method for recycling mixed plastics, which are usually considered too difficult to recycle.
In this interview, Ecobirdy’s husband-and-wife team Joris Vanbriel and Vanessa Yuan talk about everything from mastering recycling as a business to water systems and composting organic waste.
BC: First off, tell me about yourselves? I’m curious about your different backgrounds, and how you started Ecobirdy?
VY & JV: Vanessa was born in Taiwan, and Joris is from Belgium. We both started our professional careers in the design industry in Milan, more than 10 years ago. We have worked in different fields of design such as product, 3D visual, interior- and fashion. All those areas require different approaches; this helped us to gather a widespread knowledge that complements each other.
With our different backgrounds and cultures, we found a positive synergy that enhances our professional life together. In 2008 we decided to combine our skills and founded our own design studio, and since 2016 we manage our own design brand Ecobirdy. Both are based in Antwerp, Belgium.
“There should be 2 price tags: one in money and the other on the environment. It’s up to consumers to decide the value. ”
BC: How would you describe your work to your grandma?
VY & JV: We both don’t have many memories of our grandmothers, but we know what you mean. We’d say: We turn broken toys and other garbage into super beautiful furniture and products.
At Ecobirdy, we use recycled material and create our own recycling system, but our products are also entirely recyclable with the most common recycling technology available worldwide. Our ethos is making the most of our precious resources and avoiding unnecessary waste.
Photo by Arne Jennard
BC: What’s the one most promising technology or development you think the industry should adopt more broadly?
VY & JV: Only one? There are so many! We have two: an eco-water system and composting organic waste.
The water we use in bathrooms to wash hands or shower should be collected to flush toilets and wipe floors. The water we use in the kitchen to wash vegetables and plates should be collected to water the plants. Such a system should be installed in every domestic living environment.
Then also, composting organic waste should be part of daily life for every human being. Organic waste is easy to biodegrade and goes back to benefit our ecosystem. Nothing is more sustainable than this. However, most of us are not doing so.
If you think about it, it’s ironic that we put a lot of attention on recycling, reducing plastic, and inventing new biodegradable materials, but we aren’t composting our own organic waste simply because it’s inconvenient.
Photo by Ulrika Nihlén. Stylist: Clara Dayet
BC: What are some ways to get more people on board with sustainability, particularly when it comes to buying sustainable pieces?
VY & JV: There should be 2 price tags: one in money and the other on the environment. It’s up to consumers to decide the value. Often, when talking about cost, it goes to one point: where is it made? Our products are made in Italy and Belgium. We apply social and environmental responsibility at every step of our practice. For every decision we make, the natural impact is a concern and priority. The costs then indeed are high but we believe it is worth it because the cost on the environment is low.
Also, a more sustainable product is not necessarily more expensive. That’s a misconception.
BC: What’s the one major thing that needs to happen right now to further efforts in sustainable design?
VY & JV: Synchronize supply chains and recycle chains. Suppliers of consumer goods must work together with recyclers on post-product life. The producer must include recycling for its own products.
For decades, most industries focused on how to produce faster and cheaper, without considering the impact on nature and the ‘afterlife’ of a product. Many technologies were invented to maximize consumption: sell better, sell more. They might be beneficial to us (human being’s civilized life) but it’s irresponsible on the environment if we don’t consider a product’s lifecycle.
Photo by Ulrika Nihlén
BC: Sustainability is a pretty vague word. Do you relate? If so, what’s an appropriate substitute?
VY & JV: The words sustainable and sustainability are often used to mislead, and there are no easy alternatives. We need a measurement system, and we must look at sustainability in 2 parts: product lifecycle and material.
A constructive and accurate measurement system would be helpful to differentiate a product’s sustainability – product lifecycle – from the raw material to the production process, the distribution chain, the post-consumption until recycling (or biodegrading). All of the energy involved could be calculated to get a complete report about the natural impact of a product on the energy used. The lifecycle analysis of a product shows in detail the environmental impact of production, logistics, and end-of-life.
But this system must include the status of the resources’ availability globally to keep the balance. If all industries replace material A with material B, we would then face a material B shortage soon, even if the material is sustainable and grows back easily. There should be a control on overproduction to not break the balance of our ecosystem.
Such a system would also require collaboration between industries, countries, and governments. It is a challenge for governments to move interests from growing economies to growing natural resources. It would be a dream!
BC: And finally, what is the production process like at Ecobirdy?
VY & JV: When we decided to work with recycled plastic, we made a 2-year study on the entire recycling chain to understand where the problem is and how could we solve it. We design the aesthetic, the function, the material, and the production process as a whole. From the collection of recycled plastic toys to the pattern distribution in the texture, until the function of the furniture and ergonomic study of the chair.
We also spend a lot of effort on product development. Recycling plastic as we do is not the simplest process. It requires accurate sorting and is not the most efficient economically. During the production, there are significant manual operations involved as well. We have been working intensively on testing, engineering, and designing to make our products safe, ergonomic, comfortable, functional, and most importantly, aesthetically attractive, and entirely recyclable.
