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Electrolux Unveils “Vacs From the Sea” Made From Plastic Waste
Posted By
Bridgette Meinhold
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Eco Textiles,Electronics,Environment,Water |
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Electrolux is a home appliance manufacturer and a large consumer of plastics, many of which are not recycled — but they’d like to change that. They claim that there is not enough quality recycled plastic available for them to utilize in their products, so they launched their campaign, Vacs from the Sea, to help bring about change in the industry. In conjunction with the Vacs from the Sea initiative, Electrolux has also released a new green vacuum, the Electrolux Ultra One Green-model, which uses 70% recycled plastic for the body of the vacuum.
The other half of the campaign is to help raise more awareness about the amount of plastic in our oceans, so they sponsored five teams of divers and collectors to the North Sea, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, the Pacific Ocean, and the Baltic Sea to collect plastic trash. A large assortment of plastic trash was sorted and crafted to create the front plastic panel of a limited edition of the Ultra One Green vacuums, which utilize the same chassis, engine, and bag compartment and operate exactly the same. The plastic casing on each vacuum represents the ocean from which it was collected.
Although it would be grand if they could make hundreds of these vacuums for sale around the world, the collection and production time to make these recycled vacuums is prohibitively long. Electrolux does plan on auctioning off one of the vacuums and donating the money to research, and the other four vacuums will go on tour.
Teams from around the world participated in the trash removal, including B.E.A.C.H from the USA, Blue View Divers in Thailand, Hel Marine Station in Poland, Kimo International/Fishing for Liter in the UK, Pedas in Latvia, Sotenäs Municipality in Sweden, Sandhamn Islanders in Sweden and the Surfrider Foundation of France.
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…
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Electrolux started the “Vac from the Sea” initiative at the beginning of the summer to raise awareness about the amount of plastic trash in our oceans.
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As part of that initiative they created 5 vacuums made from recycled plastic ocean trash and released a new vacuum model made from recycled plastic.
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Electrolux sent out a number of teams to locations around the world to collect plastic trash.
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Then the trash was taken and organized to create the front panels for a limited edition series of vacuums.
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Here is the model representing the Baltic Sea alongside the front panel in production stage.
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On the right is the vacuum representing the North Sea and on the left is the model representing the Indian Ocean.
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Here is the model representing the trash from the Mediterranean Sea alongside a rainbow assortment of bottle caps collected there.
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Finally, on the left is the model from the Pacific Ocean next to Electrolux’s newest green vacuum – the Ultra One Green-model made from 70% recycled plastic.
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Here a team from Hawaii picks up trash on the beach and places it in special Vacs from the Sea collection bags.
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The trash is then sorted by volunteers before being sent to Electrolux.
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Trash was collected off coral reefs underwater by teams of divers as well as by beach collectors.
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Collectors from the North Sea pile up their booty from the ocean.
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Originally 6 vacuums were planned, but only five were finished. They showcase trash collected from the Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean, North Sea, Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean.
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