Innovations with recycling
The Uusix workshops cover eleven fields ranging from ceramics to jewellery and metal to dressmaking.Uusix-workshops use recycling materials that are obtained in large batches at one time e.g. bags have been made from used hospital textiles that have been dyed and patterned.
Materials that are recycled include used exhibition mats, computer circuit boards, panes of glass from buses, the tumbler components from washing machines, safety belts, advertising film tapes, computer tether cables, recycled timber, rims of scrap wheels and old keys.
- Caring for the environment and observing the principles of sustainable development are our values and part of our everyday work, stresses Vuokko Oikarinen, who is in charge at the workshops.
Design and innovation go hand-in-hand at the Uusix-workshops. Design innovations are created from the recycling materials obtained, which in many instances suggests a narrative for the product.
- The idea is for the ‘wow effect’ to be created from each product. Experimenting and ideation generate new ideas. We endeavour to encourage all our employees to be creative, Oikarinen says.
The Uusix workshops provide Helsinki citizens who are difficult to employ with top-class and meaningful rehabilitative work activity. There are some 300 people working there, about half of whom are being rehabilitated, the rest being work trainees at different levels.
www.uusix.fi
Source: Finnfacts Newsletter 7/2009
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