We're thrilled to see all sorts of organizations and individuals raising awareness about plastic in our oceans, and recently one unexpected company took the plunge - a vacuum manufacturer. Sweden-based Electrolux launched a new initiative at the beginning of the summer to raise awareness about the awful amount of plastic in our oceans and sent off teams to five oceans around the world to collect plastic. That trash was then used to create a limited edition of vacuum cleaners called Vacs from the Sea, which were recently completed - read on for a look at each design!
Nice marketing gag. Clever really.
But how much energy and fuel went into this exercise? How much petrol spent for travel, why using purpose made buckets and bags (from virgin plastic) to collect the rubbish to then use UP to 70% (could be less – it’s just a max.) to manufacture new stuff for collectors.
It still does not solve the issue of having the rubbish in the oceans in the first place.
Why are we chucking and tossing it in there in the first place?
Whether this type of marketing will really change the world or just the companies revenue – time will tell.
Great idea!
Getting people to think about all that plastic without being browbeaten or shamed is important. Getting people to change their habits is harder.
Kudos to you!
Great work. Here is a nice video http://bit.ly/angMo4
@ingoratsdorf – there was obviously an excessive amount of energy consumed for this project… the point is raising awareness globally. If they had said “made from plastic we found within our local area” the message and the impact that it would make on people would simply not be the same. Raising awareness, and being sustainable are not the same thing.
@geva: – raising awareness and marketing are too separate things too.
Raising awareness can be done differently, in a productive and positive manner, ie, using 100% recycled plastic, using PLA plastic, introducing a takeback or swap-for-new scheme, …. whatever. And THEN do some good marketing with that one. But instead we continue being sold cheap vacs that will be tossed after a short while because some tiny plastic piece broke somewhere and the whole thing goes to landfill. Nobody usually even bothers to disassemble it or reuse parts. And it’s mostly not designed for being reused anyway.
Why can’t we make things that can be repaired instead of tossed? Repaired for a price less than a new one. That’s how it was for the whole of mankind’s history until a few decades ago.
I guess we have to generally think about the way we manufacture and distribute things.