These Taiwanese Companies Are Turning Waste Into Building Materials

Insect shells, rice husks, water bottles, and bamboo charcoal might not be the first things that come to mind when you think of high-­performance building products. But Taiwanese upcycling company Miniwiz is using them to create just that. “We take leftover construction waste, leftover fiber waste, leftover plastic or packaging waste, and turn that into a building material you can use for another 30 years,” says CEO Arthur Huang. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Carbon emissions from the built environment include “operational” carbon generated through uses like lighting and ventilation, and “embodied” or “embedded” carbon, created during the process of material extraction, manufacturing, and transportation.