“buøy” is a project to transform discarded ocean plastic into beautiful traditional crafts. It was born from an in-house project called “Plas + tech project”, which began in Technolab Co., Ltd., a product design company based in Kanagawa ward, Yokohama.
The idea behind “buøy” is that the essential cause of the ocean plastic pollution is not “material itself of plastic,” but the “human habit of using and discarding it easily.” Mass-produced plastic is discarded because it is seen as an inexpensive “commodity” that can be easily replaced. However, if it is beautiful and only one original “craft” in the world, can we still throw them away? No, we would care them more carefully. A craft dish made from ocean plastic garbage came out of this idea.
buøy’s beautiful design was realized by a special manufacturing method. It utilizes the properties of plastic, which melts with heat and hardens when cooled, and presses products at a constant pressure while applying heat. This makes it possible to create beautiful molded plates while mixing different types and colors of plastic materials. This method is currently patent-pending.
The ocean plastic garbage used as the material for buøy was collected by Technolabo staff on the Zushi Coast in Kanagawa, and the project fund was raised by crowdfunding.