Chinese New Year may go unnoticed by many in the west, but it takes about 1,600 trees and 170,000 liters of petrol to meet the holiday demand for wrapping paper in Hong Kong alone. To raise awareness and encourage more recycling in the city, Saatchi & Saatchi installed a machine that can transform old newspapers into Chinese New Year-themed wrapping paper in just 30 seconds.
The aptly named “Instant Newspaper Recycler” was installed at Sun Hung Kai’s East Point City shopping center last weekend to allow passersby to try out the machine. After feeding their papers in one end, shoppers only had to wait 30 seconds before they received their wrapping paper. There are three different festive designs, each of which features a recycling symbol to make sure the message about environmental protection hits home.
Mr. Eric Lau, the Assistant General Manager (Promotions) of SHK, said “We’re highly committed to saving the environment whenever we can. Especially during the festive season, there’s a lot of wastage. We’re very happy with this creative execution from Saatchi & Saatchi, and we hope to have reminded people of the importance of recycling.”
The campaign proved to be a big hit in Hong Kong as you can see from their Facebook Page, but it’s an idea that could translate well to countless other countries and times of the year. Even if it isn’t possible to create a scaled-up version of the machine to do people’s recycling for them in shopping centers, it would still be a great way to encourage eco-friendly habits during various holiday seasons throughout the globe.
Via CreativeReview, PSFK
Images via Instant Newspaper Recycler
