Advertising tarps as raw material for reusable carrier bags.
In Europe, more than 1,900 million square meters of PVC advertising banners and billboards are printed every year. That equates to 380,000 football pitches. Every year! Since advertising campaigns have a limited life, and they follow each other very quickly, this means a huge residual stream.
Today, these discarded banners and tarps are mainly burned to do energy recovery. Not exactly the most sustainable form of valorization. A way to valorize the residual flow but certainly not the most sustainable.
Jean-Luc Théate, founder of the company Design Point in Liège (BE), developed a more sustainable alternative by incorporating these PVC advertising tarps into carrier and panniers. The material properties of the advertising tarps (washable, flexible and strong) lend themselves perfectly to this product category. In addition, the products are produced locally in collaboration with the social economy company APAC.
By combining this upcycling strategy with the local workforce, not only residual flows but also skills are revalued in the circular economy tailored to the region.