Founded 2005 Number of employees 40 | Website www.miniwiz.com | |
 | ||
Miniwiz (or MINIWIZ, LTD., 小智研發股份有限公司) is an Internationally operating and privately owned company dedicated to upcycling consumer trash and industrial waste. It creates low carbon footprint materials, semi-finished goods and building modules suitable for uses ranging from construction to consumer products. The company was established in 2005.
Contents
Description
Miniwiz was created in March 2005 by architect and structural engineer Arthur Huang and Jarvis Liu, an architect engineer. The company was registered and located in Taipei, Taiwan. In 2007, Miniwiz developed the Hymini, a portable wind, solar and handcrank power generator made from recycled ABS. Soon Miniwiz became active first as a green building material consultant, then as a building material manufacturer.
The World Economic Forum recognised Miniwiz as a Technology Pioneer in 2015 in the category “Energy / Environment / Infrastructure”, highlighting the positive impact that the company’s activity has on the world’s environment and economic growth. At the same time, Miniwiz received much media attention and many awards for its innovations in the recycling and building-material sector.
Employees
Miniwiz employs 40 engineers and administration staff. A team of chemical, mechanical, structural and industrial engineers is leading the company's R&D activities, other employees work in areas of architecture, industrial design and engineering.
Governance and operation
The company’s leadership team comprises:
Products
Miniwiz develops and sells materials 100% recycled from waste, but also re-engineers them into various applications. It recycles trash - including electronic, food, agricultural, packaging and automotive waste - into products like cellphone cases, sunglasses, interior applications, and construction materials.
Materials
Miniwiz claims that most of post-consumer, agricultural and industrial waste can be recycled into materials that, if enhanced, can be reused to substitute any virgin material. Avoiding the usage of toxic and environment polluting chemical agents, Miniwiz reworks the composition of its recycled materials. Miniwiz developed a set of materials 100% made from trash that combines polymers with Nano-Silica extracted from organic elements of agriculture waste as well as other non-toxic chemical and mechanical reinforcements. Polymers developed by Miniwiz all enter in the category of thermoplastics, ensuring a reduced carbon footprint during the phase of transformation into products and possible re-recycling after usage.
Building modules
Miniwiz develops modular elements for construction and interior architecture purposes. Made of Miniwiz materials, modules are engineered around the general ideas of:
Building modules developed by Miniwiz include:
End-user products
Miniwiz designed various pieces of furniture and consumer goods, made of recycled materials. Some of them include Hymini, a wind, solar and hand-crank charger that can be fixed on a bike or one’s arm to recharge electronic items’ batteries using natural sources of power; Review, sunglasses made from recycled post-consumer CDs and DVDs; as well as shelving systems and wine cases made from recycled materials.
EcoARK
EcoARK was the main exhibition hall for the Taipei International Flora Exposition. Commissioned by Far Eastern Group, the nine-story tall pavilion is made of 1.5 million Polli-Bricks, which saved 300 tons of plastic from ending up in landfills. The transparent nature of the Polli-Bricks allows the pavilion to be naturally lit, whilst the air pockets in the help insulate the structure. Like a giant LEGO building, the use of Polli-Bricks allows the structure to be disassembled and assembled elsewhere. Polli-Brick’s low weight and strong bond of the units make EcoARK both earthquake- and hurricane-resistant. It is featured in an hour-long special by National Geographic Channel’s Megastructures:EcoARK.
Recycling Plant
Miniwiz worked with SDTI, one of Taiwan's leader in electronic waste recycling, to rethink the recycling process with a more sustainable approach and limit potential health issues and environmental impacts. Miniwiz designed and built SDTI's new factory using the IT waste produced by existing SDTI recycling plants. It is featured in National Geographic special "Megastructures: Urban Mine".
NikeLab
Constructed from blocks of a recycled polymer composite made by combining Nike Grind, a premium grade raw material derived from recycled athletic shoes and materials left over from the manufacture of Nike product, with non-toxic, odorless eco-polyurethane. NikeLab stores can be found in six cities around the world: New York, London, Paris, Milan, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Le Blé d'Or
Le Blé d'Or restaurant- Xinzhuang store is located in New Taipei City, Taiwan. Directly related to the theme of the restaurant, the main material developed (entrance walls, ceiling, chairs) is a bio composite of recycled PP injected with hop and wheat husks issued from wastes of beer brewing. In the entrance, the Polli-Ber Bricks wall system set the tone. The semi-opaque leveled surface, with its gold-brownish shade, creates a casual yet sophisticated atmosphere. As for hops chair, its translucent body finish adds an extra layer to the depth of the chair’s aesthetic scope. No glue is incorporated in this design, ensuring maximum recyclability after its life cycle.
EcoFighter
Miniwiz announced the Ecofighter project in May 2015. Miniwiz will take upcycling technologies to the ultimate test: aeronautics. The Ecofighter initiative will transform a "Veri EZ” Experimental Aircraft part by part, replacing its original elements with flexible but resistant recycled material wings. One of the latest material innovations that will be applied is called SRPX - self reinforced polymer matrix, which simply denotes materials that reinforce themselves, for example a PET fabric reinforcing a PET sheet. After the Ecofigther has undergone the re-engineering process it will take flight in 2016, documenting environmental damage and environmental progress across the globe.
Anything Butts
In April. Miniwiz and Philip Morris International (PMI) launched their latest collaboration at Salone deModile 2016 during Milan Design Week. A revolutionary new material made with recycled filters of IQOS heatsticks was applied to Cesare Leonard’s most groundbreaking furniture designs from the 60s. The collaboration was presented in Palazzo Clerici courtyard among an ever-changing installation of IQOS tetrapods, an air-purifying, illuminated, self structured retail fixture system, designed exclusively to tell the story of IQOS. Tetrapods are made with 100% post consumer recycled materials and air purifying amorphous bamboo charcoal and can be entirely re-recycled. A board of Plyfix™ foam made with recycled IQOS filters or regular cigarette filters. Anything Butts was born from the encounter between the innovative IQOS 'heat-not-burn' technology developed by Philip Morris, a revolutionary system that heats tobacco instead of burning it.