Practical uses

So far, Yi Design has cooperated with about 60 factories and more than 40 ceramic studios to collect ceramic waste. Over 5,000 tons of ceramic waste has been collected.

The company's products have also been used in several projects, including the tiled wall of fashion company COS's store in Shanghai's Century Plaza shopping mall. Their recycled permeable bricks have been used in the outdoor floor area of a coffee-themed community building jointly established by Tongji University and the coffee chain Starbucks in Shanghai.

Yin said their next step is to reduce costs and explore the possibility of increasing mass production of their materials.

"In the future, we hope to achieve large-scale production and help realize the green development and transformation of the ceramic industry," Yin said.

Yan, the 3D-printing products vendor, said that although Yi Design reuses some ceramic waste to make their products, this may not be the sole solution to the ceramic waste problem. "But they have presented this problem to the public, making people aware of its existence, while also providing a solution," he said.

"People lack imagination when it comes to environmental problems such as the existence of ceramic waste piles the size of mountains outside factories, which few people know about," Yan added.

"But Yi Design's philosophy is changing my thoughts and behavior, as well as those of many other people, making us more respectful of and protective of the environment. I believe that more and more people will make their own changes for the environment in the future."