Instant Recycling Is Here, and You Can Watch It Happen In Real Time

There has been a lot of buzz around a crowdfunding campaign for a new home composting device called Lomi. More than 12,000 backers have raised $4.4 million so far for the concept countertop appliance that lets anyone turn their food scraps and bio plastics into compost. Around the same time, a startup called Looop won a Fast Company 2021 World Changing Idea Award for its machine that shreds and cleans old fabric, spins it into yarn and then knits it into a new product in just 24 hours. Both are highly visual examples of a new sort of instant recycling that may soon become commonplace.

One of the longstanding challenges for the recycling or upcycling movement has been that it is easy to lose a connection to the end benefits of your actions because they aren’t always visible. If we can solve that problem with a creative way to let people visually experience their own impact, that could dramatically shift perceptions and behaviors.