Waste is a design flaw: How ReBorn is turning plastic waste into homewares | Virgin
Summary
I caught up with the start-ups founder, Brian Walmsley, for an Investing with Purpose interview to learn more about ReBorns mission to transform the industry through circular design, innovation, radical collaboration, and a whole lot of resilience.Brian founded ReBorn after spending many years working in the homeware industry and growing increasingly frustrated by the lack of sustainability and circularity in the sector. While sustainable brands arent difficult to find in fashion, food, and other consumer goods, there is a distinct gap when it comes to homewares. As Brianexplained in our interview, almost everything in the industry is made from virgin materials, outsourced to third party factories from the Far-East, and most items are impossible to repair or recycle at end of life. This involves extensive use of fossil fuels in both manufacture and transport, which all comes at a great cost to the planet.Brian was determined to tackle the issue, but when only 9% of plastics in the Western world are recycled, how do you create change? Now, ReBorn is stocked in John Lewis stores across the UK and is expanding into new sectors and new markets with new products and new customers.