Many children's things cost a lot of money, but are actually only used temporarily. Afterwards, they are often still in good condition, but only a third of them are recycled. Many starters and designers from the sector would like to take a more circular approach to this, but regularly run up against the barriers of market research, logistics, scaling up production, etc.
The project Waste_full, a circular hub for little munchkins, is an initiative of Mic Mac Minuscule for starters, designers and small businesses who want to bring circular products and services to the market for children and their parents. The aim is to investigate whether and how a marketplace for circular products can be viable.
The project consists of three parts: a digital platform for testing and selling circular products to the market, a physical hub for prototyping and (scale-up) production of circular products, and a knowledge hub for exchanging knowledge and information, with a strong focus on learning-by-trying.
At the start, we first searched for suitable surplus streams with which we could generate ideas for prototypes. Our leftover hackatons, an initiative in which participants try out new design ideas with leftover textiles, wood, cardboard ... were a great success and formed an important link for our project.
In the next phase, we developed a series of prototypes using rapid prototyping, a method that allows us to quickly determine whether a product is viable, technically, financially and in terms of market acceptance. A circular co-sleeper, nappy bags, play boxes ... are some examples of our developed prototypes.
Mic Mac Minuscule BVBA
Partners Mic Mac Minuscule BVBA, Kunnig VZW, Kabinet O, Mathias De Cock, Netwerk Bewust Verbruiken VZW
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During the project, we developed a number of building blocks for future growth: the embedding of the digital platform via LoopedGoods, the resulting collaboration between the custom company, the circular designers and the suppliers of surplus streams, the blueprint for logistics, the rapid prototyping method ...
Our future now depends on the extent to which our circular market platform can continue to grow in the highly competitive market, in order to achieve the necessary scale in terms of marketing, production and logistics and to arrive at a healthy balance sheet. Further segmentation of the offer for specific target groups and buying moments is also an essential link.