Designer and innovator Arthur Huang called on Internet users in Taiwan and around the world to vote online for his company, recently named a finalist for the 2011 Asian Innovation Awards for developing POLLI-Bricks, a new building material made entirely from recycled PET bottles.
Huang is hoping that the votes will “shine the spotlight on Taiwan’s soft power and its international contribution to environmental protection,” he said Oct. 14.
POLLI-Bricks were used to construct the boat-shaped EcoARK exhibition hall at the 2010 Taipei International Flora Exposition. Huang’s company, Miniwiz Sustainable Energy Development Co. Ltd., developed the bricks for the nine-story structure, whose construction costs were sponsored by the Far Eastern Group.
Miniwiz, which was also nominated in part for designing the EcoARK, is one of 12 finalists selected from among 260 entries from 18 countries for the awards, jointly presented by The Wall Street Journal Asia and Credit Suisse Group.
“If we win the award, this will not only mark an affirmation of our design team but will also represent the achievement of the Taiwan people’s all-out environmental protection efforts as well as our island’s limitless creative power,” Huang said.
The Wall Street Journal Asia said the awards are aimed at discovering the continent’s next generation of outstanding innovators. Selection criteria include creativity, quality of execution and impact on quality of life or productivity.
Winners of the awards—gold, silver, bronze and readers’ choice—will be announced at a ceremony in Hong Kong next month. Online voting is scheduled to end at midnight Oct. 21.
Recalling the inspiration behind the POLLI-Brick idea, Huang pointed out that some 2.4 billion PET bottles are discarded in Taiwan each year, with only about 4 percent of these being recycled and reused, while the remaining 96 percent cause major harm to the environment. To address this problem, Huang said he approached Far Eastern with the “trash to build” plan four years ago.
More than 1.5 million recycled PET bottles were used to make the bricks for the construction of the EcoARK building, which received major media coverage during the four-month run of last year’s flora exhibition.
Various environmental and construction technologies are used in the molding process to make the bricks fire retardant, waterproof and wind resistant, thereby increasing their suitability and attractiveness as an alternative building material.
“The POLLI-Brick is not only in line with the spirit of the environmental concepts of recycling and reuse, it also has the potential to generate major business opportunities by turning trash into gold,” Huang said. (SB)