Edited by Michelle Ho
Kevin Cheung is a product designer and environmentalist who is based in Hong Kong. His primary goal is to turn rubbish and waste materials into usable products; these include wallets, laptop sleeves, electronics, etc. (Chow, 2022). In doing this, Cheung wants to teach Hong Kongers a valuable lesson, which is to live more sustainably (Chow, 2022).
The Hong Kong-based product designer also aims to have a zero-waste lifestyle, and as of now works on his projects in Wan Chai’s Blue House. Cheung was dubbed the “rubbish guy” by other residents of the unit as he liked to treasure hunt in the piles of garbage and waste, searching for raw materials to use for his projects (Ling, 2019). Cheung has been upcycling waste since 2011 (Ling, 2019).
Upcycling is the reusing and recycling of something in ways that increase the value of the original material or object (Fuller, 2021). Upcycling does not involve breaking down the original object (Ling, 2019). Although Hong Kong is one of the most environmentally friendly cities in Asia, there are areas of improvement in reducing waste, which can be seen in the city’s landfill problem. In 2017 alone, Hong Kong had dumped more than 10,700 tonnes of solid waste into landfills daily (Tsui, 2019). This means that a lot of plastic bottles and other solid waste have gone to waste without the opportunity to be renewed into more useful products.
The first product created by Cheung was called the Boombottle, which is an upcycled speaker made from a plastic bottle (Ling, 2019). After the Boombottle, he made the Rice Bell, which was bicycle bells made from rice cookers, as well as the Lumi-rim, which is a ceiling light made from discarded bicycle rims. Cheung’s products can usually be found online (Ling, 2019).
Recently, the government has improved waste treatment methods, such as building recycling and manufacturing plants (Ling, 2019). This way, Cheung and other environmentally conscious people will have more opportunities to recycle and upcycle waste.
References
Chow, Y. (2022, January 17). Hong Kong's eco-friendly designer upcycling plastic bottles
and broken rice cookers into speakers and bicycle bells. Young Post.
https://www.scmp.com/yp/discover/lifestyle/article/3163457/hong-kong-designer-
transforming-plastic-bottles-and-broken
Fuller, K. (2021, December 6). What Does 'Upcycling' Mean—and How Does It Benefit the
Planet? Brightly. https://brightly.eco/upcycling-meaning/
Ling, J. (Ed.). (2019, December 21). Telling the Tales of Trashes. Varsity.
https://varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk/index.php/2019/12/telling-the-tales-of-trashes/
Tsui, S. (2019, April 20). Hong Kong sixth out of 13 in Asia-Pacific green rankings but the city could do better, particularly in cutting waste. South China Morning Post.
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3006944/hong-
kong-sixth-out-13-asia-pacific-green
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