Page 88 - Print 21 July-August 2019

People in Print
the OVERflow
Industry gathers for recycled coffee cup launch
Ball & Doggett’s Evening of Rubbish Talks delivered inspiration to the crowd of
designers and graphic media professionals who gathered at the Distillery in Sydney, reports Lindy Hughson.
Teaming up with paper maker G . F Smith, Ball & Doggett has taken the Rubbish Talks to Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney with the aim
of highlighting the value of finding creative solutions to the world’s waste challenge.
One of the biggest waste makers is the take-away coffee industry – in Australia alone we use 2.7 million paper cups every day, or just under a billion a year. First presenter of the night, G . F Smith’s
Jutta Birkenhauer, explained how her company has taken on the challenge of fighting this problem by developing
a paper that is made from recycled coffee cups but
which, ironically, it hopes to discontinue as soon as possible. Why? “Because it’s drawn
from a product that should be outlawed,” Birkenhauer says. “Our love affair with coffee is creating a huge problem.”
She says that as a society we have to change our behaviour, because using PE-lined disposable paper cups is not sustainable. But until this
is solved, Birkenhauer says, Extract – which is available in Australia through Ball & Doggett – is a step in the right direction.
Print and design professionals hear from Ball & Doggett on how Extract paper is created from recycling take–away coffee cups.
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Five coffee cups go into
each sheet of Extract. That the product is not made totally from recycled cups has seen the company draw some criticism, but as Birkenhauer explains, and as those involved in the industry would know, this would be physically impossible.
She explained that G . F Smith had to include fresh fibres in the composition
for binding the product,
and to reduce the amount
of ‘dirty’ fibre so that the end product could still be considered a thing of beauty. She said Extract is the result of chemistry and artistry combined to form something beautiful from waste.
Next up on the night was self-proclaimed optimistic existentialist Claire Mueller.
Right: Pictured are Tony Bertrand, marketing manager, Ball & Doggett, with Toni Chapman, advertising manager, Print21, at the Extract launch.
In Mueller’s view, waste is just a design flaw, and she shared three examples of inspirational concepts that have seen waste converted into product.
The evening ended with the duo of Tom Hobbs and Rupert Gillies from surfboard maker Spooked Kooks, telling the story of their tough journey to develop a surfboard with recycled content.
In the concluding Q&A session all the speakers concurred: Making a start, no matter how small, is better than not starting at all. 21