Commitment to Research on Recycled Paper

Grape Lab designs a sustainable life. It is committed to discovering new values of things thrown away as waste and creating sustainable designs that can enrich our everyday life. The company explores diverse recycled materials including recycled paper and waste plastic and conducts experiments to design all lifestyles to be eco-friendly. Above all, product designs by Grape Lab feature a single material because most products are made of composite materials, which makes recycling difficult. Thus, Grape Lab uses recycled materials and designs products in a way that makes recycling easy in order to maintain the closed loop of recycling and upcycling.
“Natural resources get depleted while composite materials are not biodegradable. ‘How can I create environment-friendly products?’ The final answer I arrived at is to make sure that even the raw materials used for our products need to be recycled materials. This is why I got interested in recycled paper, which can be recycled again after being used.”
Grape Lab is led by CEO Kim Min-yang philosophy of subtraction and addition. The philosophy of subtraction is about the environment. It is about producing environment-friendly products using minimum resources and technology developed in-house. From materials that make a product to the end of a product, i.e., until it is thrown away, the company thinks of all lifestyles from a sustainable perspective. The philosophy of addition means embracing and including the underprivileged. It recognizes artistic talents of the youth with developmental disorder and views them as members who contribute to the diversity of our society. At Grape Lab, people with or without disabilities blend in and work together. The fair distribution of profit motivates them to be economically active and promotes shared growth.

The World’s Lightest Laptop Holder

“I got my M.A. in ‘Sustainable Design’ in the U.K. While participating in an environmental packaging program, I thought I wanted to make eco-friendly sandwich boxes because they were generating a lot of waste. For this, I used Grounding Method using recycled paper.”
She registered a design patent on the Grounding Method she developed not only in Korea but also in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and China. ‘What can I make out of this?’ she thought and thought. After thinking long and hard, she came up with some products including ‘G-Flow’, a laptop holder, ‘G-Stand’, a multi-purpose portable stand for books and other items, and ‘G-Planner’, an appointment booklet for keeping a record of your appointments and personal events on a monthly basis.
In particular, G-Flow made of one sheet of recycled paper weighing only 45g is the world’s lightest, portable laptop holder. “A laptop itself is heavy enough. Its holder should be as light as possible, I figured.”
How can a holder made of a sheet of paper support the weight of a laptop? A sheet of paper can’t, but when we fold it, axes are created, and these axes have the strength to hold a laptop. They can hold as much as 5kg or even more, Kim Min-yang explains.
I’m Waste-Based products are made of scrap pieces of paper thrown away from printing shops, waste bottle caps, and other upcycled materials. Grape Lab is expanding its business scope to desk items to furniture.

Everything Counts!

Grape Lab explores everything that is thrown away to turn it into part of a sustainable life. This is why it works with a lot of different businesses. Last year, Grape Lab and Dell Technology launched the ‘Blue Planet & Blue Pixel’ campaign, which led to exporting to the U.S. and Italy. It also worked with the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art to make laptop holders out of carbon neutrality goods posters. Recently, it collected used labels and gift-wrapping ribbons via social media to make bags.
Currently, Grape Lab and Korea Institute of Design Promotion are working together to launch ‘Remote Workers’ Kit’. It is an upcycled set made of different recycled materials. The set includes G-Stand, pencils, and notepad, and office workers can carry it to work anytime, anywhere.
“We’re fighting a lonely battle here to promote the use of more environment-friendly materials, and I hope more people join the cause to make our life sustainable. Please take a moment to think where the products you use come from and what it means.” Grape Lab is playing a valuable role in making our life sustainable and getting the under-privileged involved in the process. In this sense, Grape Lab is certainly contributing to building a sustainable future for us.

※ This interview was conducted in accordance with the COVID-19 safety rules.

Grape Lab

Email: hello@thegrapelab.org

Website: https://grapelab.co