Circular Life
Natural Economy

The Circ​ular Life of Coffee Grounds and Plastic Bottles

Image Source: Link

Interview Questions

1. How does the Taiwanese government support circular economy-related businesses?

In recent years, the Taiwanese government has invested more resources in the circular economy for enterprises. For example, different authorities in government agencies provide various competitions focused on the circular economy. The government has several criteria for the selection to determine whether your product or circular economy project is adequate to achieve the goals. If you pass these selections you can be qualified for several awards, such as the certificates you see here or all the medals in the back. These are all new awards for the circular economy launched by the government and institutions. There are companies and manufacturers that are working hard on the circular economy and will invest resources in order to participate and compete in the competition. In fact, participating in the competition has several benefits. The affirmation of the prize, for instance, can signify the endorsement of your product's contribution to society or its high level of quality. Although consumers will initially think circular economy products have a relatively higher cost, these awards will increase consumers’ willingness to spend money on buying them and choose sustainable products with more confidence. We could interpret it by getting responses from the purchases. Some contests will also offer incentives to promote certain circular economy industries in addition to these rewards. If you studied circular economy before, you will know that this is a pull between romance and reality. In fact, a lot of businesses have great concepts, but they may have no enough funds to continue to operate permanently. However, when you win some selections, some awards will actually include bonuses which is the motivation for you to continue to move forward. Despite the support from the government, some financial institutions, such as banks will also give your company or enterprise a bonus in response to supporting rules of the government. If you invest in an ESG or circular economy and the government approves you, there will be better interest rates when you are interacting with the bank and borrowing money. These projects are all introduced by the government as some motivations that can be used to build a circular economy and continue to work hard to achieve it. The government has expert consultants who will select some cases in the selection process. They can think of the value of investing in your case and there are several ways that can be optimized and change society. Therefore, the government will also see you and see that your company has the potential to operate it. They will invest some manpower resources to cultivate you and make your case more stable, better, and sustainable.

2. What advice would you give to future circular economy businesses?

Circular economy is the pull between romance and reality as the saying goes: "a house built on sand will collapse sooner or later." Actually, many people are doing "greenwashing" actions, and enterprise packages their image as a circular economy company while marketing, but after all, the circular economy is a process from cradle to cradle. The whole life of the product is made, starting with the first stages of production, manufacturing, and transportation, and ending up with a sale to the consumers. When customers use it until it is scrapped and turned into garbage we give it a new life. Then, we turn it into a new product which is known as the circular economy. There are two suggestions for future merchants who wanted towards a circular economy.  First, is to truly implement a circular economy in the process of manufacturing from the process of product sales and recycling and to examine our entire production process. There are several considerations: Have you achieved carbon reduction? Is it really a circular economy or does it actually impose more burdens on society and the environment? For example, you may work on a circular economy but you actually emit more greenhouse gases or use up more energy and manpower to exchange for the tag of a circular economy. This requires industries to make a deep assessment from the perspective of the product life cycle, and then discuss it in depth. It isn’t only "I’m doing circular economy.” The second point is actually how to make the circular economy business entity continue to survive between the choice of romance and reality for a sustainable operation or whether your circular economy business entity has the ability to create positive cycles and not just a one-time cycle how to allow it to cycle forever how to create more job opportunities for vulnerable groups and how to recycle more plastic bottles or how to create co-existence in this society are some ways that can give more value to the circular economy itself of the enterprise. These are two suggestions for business entities or platforms that have opportunities to look forward to this field in the future.

3. What were the purpose/hopes for establishing this business?

Ccilu is also known as Ccilu 22-Dream Institute Lab22. We hope everyone can always maintain the kind of pure intentions at the age of 22. Twenty-two years old is a year when you are a little bit mature and discreet and maybe have gone through family and friendship changes or had the chance of being in love. This is an age where everyone isn’t tied to reality and dares to dream for their future. I believe that in the future, everyone may experience this deeply. I personally deeply experienced this when I was 22 years old. So  I hope that everyone can always maintain their pure intentions at the age of 22 years old. Dream bravely, bravely break through the framework, and practice a sustainable low-carbon lifestyle continuously.

4. What was the greatest challenge when starting the business? How did you overcome it?

Ccilu was founded in 2012. In the past, we were popular in the market but we faded out for a while. Ccilu relies on clogs that are able to disassembled and personalize, which became popular worldwide. When we first started investing in the Japanese industry we even managed to attract 15 Japanese department stores to invite us into their stores. As the beginning of our journey. However, the good time didn’t continue for long. Our products later had several flaws in the early stage of creation lowering the total quality of the products. Then, when malicious market attacks and close-up scrutiny were added Ccilu was impacted greatly at that time. In the words of our founder, Ccilu has technology, a graduated background, strong ability in research, development, and technology, and both people and material resources. I think it should be possible to launch more different types of products to convince consumers. However, this is the case for retail once a problem is not resolved and new items are produced it will result in an excess of market inventories. When products are not sold products go on sale, or are even taken down directly out of stock if serious this is extremely harmful to the brand. Therefore, following the toughest challenge in the early stages of Ccilu's operation, we went through a major transition and stopped producing several petrochemical raw materials. For instance, certain petrochemical raw materials may create products with large carbon emissions. Thus we are now entirely converting to perform a positive cycle of recycling material. So, there will be Ccilu who is now standing back again. Furthermore, as a result of the transformation's breakthrough and coming back, we gathered supporters of environmental preservation who continuously support us such as those who are interested in circular economy and these social experiments. They all regularly repurchase from us again and again, which is another way they support us.

5. How do coffee ground-made and plastic bottle-made products achieve the goals of a circular economy?

Circular economy is a process of life from cradle to cradle. The circular economy is not how you come out of the cradle in your life. A baby is born and then sent to the grave, and then becomes a pile of waste trash. A piece of garbage has become an existence in society like a plastic bag that will exist for thousands of years. The goal of the circular economy is to move things from cradle to cradle, which means that the product doesn't go to the grave. Until the product is not able to be used, we destroy it, transform, or even reuse it, reduce then turn it into a new product. Lastly, returned to customers, to the market, or to our lives. The circular economy refers to this. In fact, plastic bottles and coffee grounds are mainly our own exclusive patents. For example plastic bottles, we use five plastic bottles to turn into a pair of slippers using technology. A technology called GreenPlum uses recycled plastic bottles and mixes with environmentally friendly EVA to make a pair of shoes. The same principle as coffee grounds can be made into a whole life cycle process through CCILU 's exclusive patented technology. To finally achieve a cradle to cradle cycle. For the question about the process of how our products achieved the circular economy.  It took us a lot of time, and people to study these various patented technologies, which was the breakthrough of our brand rebirth.

6. How are coffee grounds made for shoes?

This pair of shoes is made of coffee grounds. It is made of 15 cups of coffee in a pair of shoes. In addition to the exclusive patented technology, I’ve just mentioned the technology is called xpresole.It needs to go through a lot, the coffee grounds must be washed, dried, and smashed into anything that can bind yarn or EVA for shoes. There is quite a lot of technology in the process, and it is impossible to explain it in a few words. After the things are recovered, we process, wash and sort them and then mix them with environmentally friendly EVA to make shoes. You should have heard of coffee and PET yarns. These recycled fabrics are not green materials. What makes CCILU special? The thing about CCILU is that we have exclusive patented technology to make shoes. We don’t manufacture yarn but a product. Many manufacturers are doing it, which isn’t brand-new to the market. The special thing about Ccilu is that we can make shoes. As we have our own special technology like the ones you touch, the bottom, the surface fabric, and the textile. The material, the laces of the shoes, and the soles are all made of our patented technology, which makes us different. 

7. Why did your company decide to use S Cafe’s coffee ground yarn?

Ccilu actually uses coffee grounds and patented technology to do a positive cycle of recycling coffee grounds to a whole pair of shoes. For example, the upper, sole, and inner parts are all made of Ccilu's patented technology xpresole. We cooperated with S Cafe for one reason: their concept is similar to Ccilu. We all work together for the earth. In fact, in terms of a circular economy, there are some manufacturers and parts. Their whole pair of shoes are assembled in many parts. For example, textiles will have a corner or upper assembly. These parts have several corresponding functions. Their hardness and elasticity are different so they are composed of different layouts to give you a convenient wearing experience. S Cafe is a well-established business in its field with a strong reputation and multiple certifications. Like Ccilu, it has third-party quality assurance. This is how the circular economy works. You must make more breakthroughs. If other companies have already developed technologies and textiles, why not make strategic cooperation with them? If you can identify strategic collaborators in the circular economy this is a situation where one plus one is greater than two for both of us. At the same time, we can also reduce carbon emissions. We find manpower and material resources to redevelop something that others already have. So, why did Ccilu adopt the coffee yarn from S Cafe? We only use their textile yarn for some of the small components. In fact, more than 90 percent are recycled into shoes by Chilu's own xpresole technology. 

8. How do coffee grounds add functionality and value to products?

The recycling of coffee grounds will reduce the burden on the environment. Achieving environmental protection We will not talk about this, so we will use coffee grounds. In addition to its lightweight. The physical properties of coffee grounds are valuable, such as deodorant, quick-drying, and anti-UV. The product itself has some value of these physical properties. Isn’t it suitable for our human body to wear it when we make it into shoes? We could sometimes have an odor in our shoes. The rainy season in Taipei, causes the shoes to often be wet but if your shoes need to be quick-drying and deodorizing These are positive physical properties. Wouldn't it be a good thing if the garbage itself can become a pair of shoes after being recycled, and it can also reduce the burden on the earth's environment? So we are not saying that every resource and every garbage can be used unconditionally as a target option for the upper cycle. Of course, if it is a social, or environmental problem we will work hard but if This product has a greater added value in itself, we can give priority to it. After all, it is for consumers to wear. This is the state of our current strategy, but if there are some like the general public The garbage problem like the silicon wafers of Taiwan Semiconductor. We also use silicon wafers to make shoes. The patent system is called SiliComfy, so we will have a lot of screening conditions in the selection of materials. But if their own understanding is valuable, and if it can improve our lives more, we will give priority to it.

9. ​What are the company’s goals for the future regarding coffee grounds and plastic bottle products?

Coffee grounds and PET products have gone through the past few years. . Regardless of their recycling process, cleaning process, or overall sales, , the overall organizational system has been gradually stabilized after these years of hard work.. There is also a loyal group of fans with a good reputation. In fact, we have launched several styles of shoes for these two products one after another. I think a circular economy company is a little different from other retail companies since we won’t launch 20 or 30 shoe styles in a season for everyone to choose from endlessly since we are not fast fashion. However, the direction we will continue to work on is how to optimize the continuous carbon reduction of this product and how to optimize the product's manufacturing process and function of the product itself. How to create more good designs in popular shoes and how to make society better is the goal of our company. Our future prospects are to create a better design and lower carbon footprint. There are future prospects we strive for.

10. Is the energy and manpower loss whilst making products greater than the amount saved?

In terms of the production process compared with the products made of traditional petrochemical raw materials. There is no resource consumption because the production process requires physical properties and we use them to positively recycle. The logic and methods of shoemaking are the same so we don't have additional manpower, material resources, or personnel consumption. For plastic products, we use Taiwanese plastic bottles and we use Taiwan's patented technology. The process of making plastic bottle products doesn't involve any carbon footprint in international shipping. The carbon footprint has been reduced by about ½. The purpose of a circular economy is to reduce carbon and greenhouse gas emissions which is why the whole world is promoting a circular economy. There is no additional pollution in the manufacturing process or too much man force. The third-party selection or carbon footprint inspection agencies will go in-depth to discuss the entire life of the product. In the process of production to sales and when the product goes to waste. This entire process is inspected by us carefully. We will check the carbon footprint to confirm that it is not a fake circular economy. This is the principle of our company.

11. How are plastic bottles made into slippers?

We have a waste-picking laboratory in Wanhua and we have cleaning events at the beaches. There is also a 3 times friendly price laboratory. I don't know if you read related information. We invite beach cleaning organizations around Taiwan. The people who clean up scraps, and we use 3 times the price to buy bottles. This will help us to clean up and collect the plastic bottles. After collecting, the plastic bottles will be washed and sorted because these plastic bottles are all very dirty sea waste. It takes a large amount of time to wash and sort if there is mud, dirty oil, or barnacles on it. The plastic bottle might be dilapidated. After constantly being washed over by the sea current. Therefore, we will select the bottles that can be fused. Then we will go through washing and sorting. After that, we will make masterbatches one by one. Next, we will mix our EVA, or mix some oyster shells. Oyster shells can resist infrared rays and adjust the temperature. Using these advantages to create a slipper so all the processes in between for instance the masterbatch mixed with EVA and shells to create a slipper Is called the professional process of Greenplax. 

12. How do plastic bottles add functionality and value to products?

This one just now is similar to the coffee grounds. The materials we choose are helpful to the human body or used in terms of physical properties and increase functionality. We hope we can use that product to solve the energy problem on the earth at the same time during these production and manufacturing processes. The advantage of the physical properties of plastic bottles is that it is very light, anti-slip, and wear-resistant. Especially when going downhill. It’s very anti-slip. When I go to the beach or swimming pool, I will definitely wear these shoes because I am scared of falling and so on. This shoe is very non-slip. These physical properties are the physical properties of the plastic bottle itself. How do we increase the function and value of the product? As I mentioned, this pair of shoes is made of oyster shells, ground, nano-grinded, and mixed together to make a pair of shoes. In fact, this pair of shoes is made of oyster shells. There will be some superior functions such as antibacterial and deodorizing, far-infrared rays, and antistatic. In addition, if you drive by with your family on the southwestern coast of our country, you will smell a foul smell, which is oyster shells. It is a kind of sea waste piled up on the southwestern coast, so how do you use plastic bottles to increase the function and value of the product? First, PET bottles and oyster shells had their own physical properties. Second, if its physical value meets the requirements of anti-slip and lightweight.If those physical values aren't enough. We will go to select more physical properties to add such as oyster shells and solving social environmental problems along the southwestern coast, which are also of value and value in themselves.

13. What was the greatest challenge whilst creating coffee grounds and plastic bottle products? How did you overcome it?

In the process of production of PET bottles and coffee grounds products, we made them with relatively higher physical properties. Its color may not be as well-distributed and beautiful as traditional materials. Which are several challenges we need to overcome during various manufacturing processes. If you want to overcome it, you must improve your quality management skills. After that, you must carefully examine every pair of shoes that will be given to the consumers and the items that each consumer who supports the circular economy will receive. For instance, one problem we'll encounter is that the color isn't evenly spread or appealing enough. We might need to evenly apply the color, let it dry again, examine it again, and determine if there are any major manufacturing problems. In addition, if the oyster shell or PET bottle is not properly melted, a corner may be missing. If the missing corner is big enough, can the product still be sold? It indicates that the main difficulty we faced is that these productions' physical properties are not stable enough. We could overcome this by carefully regulating quality before processing. This is where we are currently facing more difficulties. However, following certain modifications during the last two years and some structural modifications in Research & development and production the quality of our products has improved steadily. Gradually, the tension in our quality control has decreased. In reality, every product will face a number of challenges along the way to market, particularly in the field of the circular economy. All circular economy products can't just depend on production or research and developments to be perfect once the products are on the market. All of the issues mentioned above will still be examined again and again. Yet, after months of continuous operation, we will still encounter a number of issues. If we encounter them, we will return to the manufacturing process to continue to optimize it. Therefore, the circular economy's sales and marketing logic varies from the logic and objectives of general brands or traditional petrochemical processes.

14. How do coffee grounds and plastic bottle products increase environmental awareness in society? 

This is my job. I am responsible for promoting the company's various shoe styles to consumers through more social experiments. For example, we may cooperate with many NGO organizations, such as the slippers I just mentioned. Our PET bottle products are not only made from sea waste. We also research the field of scavenging. We want to let everyone contribute together, participate in and improve some environmental protection awareness. We create more events. To urge everyone to join us and understand the circular economy. For example, we have an education and recycling site for picking up waste in Wanhua. We have NGOs there to train these scavengers. Usually, some people are open to signing up for the waste-picking experience. During the whole experience process, people will understand what can be recycled and what can't be recycled which many people in Taiwan don't know. They will even understand what kind of problems the scavenging industry encounters, and understand the idea that these plastic bottles will be made into a pair of shoes. Once you dive deep to understand the whole process of the circular economy. I think the fastest way to get everyone to participate and join us is to show everyone the terrible truth. For example, I don’t know whether you cleaned the beach before. Yet, if you go outside to the beach with garbage, I believe that everyone’s environmental awareness will naturally increase. If you go to pick up the garbage with the scavenger for an afternoon, you will know that she may only earn 50 TWD that afternoon, but they spent hours. These ideas will still stay in your mind even if you go home. You participated in this activity that day, and when you go home, these ideas will follow you and the next day there will be resonance or some behaviors of reflection. For example, your natural behavior, some consumption in your life, or the products you choose will make your lifestyle slowly turn towards environmental protection or directions that could benefit the environment. Yes,  in our company's approach, we hope to create more opportunities for everyone to participate together and understand, instead of spending a lot of  advertising costs to tell everyone to come here to buy our products. This isn’t how our company works.

15. What goals and dreams do your business have for the future?

Our company requires each product to be lower-carbon production. We are consistent with some products with zero carbon emissions and negative carbon emissions. We even have some premium services. For example, when the shoe is burst you can send the shoe to us. We will help you to repair the shoe into a new one and return it to you, which is an infinite environmental protection cycle. Therefore, in recent years or the past, our company has been working hard towards products with near-zero carbon emissions, zero-carbon emissions, and negative carbon emissions. 

16. What positive influence do you hope to have on the environment and society? 

In addition to eagerly expecting the introduction of a wide range of products with zero carbon emissions and negative carbon footprints to help combat global warming, we also wish to increase the number of job opportunities and distribute the company's industrial activities to more disadvantaged groups. Like the slippers just mentioned, we hire disadvantaged groups as our suppliers. So, we built a plastic bottle recycling plant in Wanhua and these disadvantaged groups sold plastic bottles to us for three times the market price and we made these bottles into shoes. In addition to using plastic bottles as shoe‘s raw materials, we hope to provide the community with more resources and job opportunities. Our objective is to be more environmentally friendly while aiming for community co-prosperity.

17. What kind of change do you want to bring regarding environmental awareness?

I believe there are two categories here: short-term and long-term. For the short term, we hope that everyone can understand environmental protection is not a marketing slogan made by manufacturers. We wish everyone can understand that the greenhouse gas crisis is a fact instead of a story. It’s the real crisis that’s happening. We expect everyone to have at least a certain sense of crisis in the short term. Despite this, we hope everyone is able to start on their own. You can use an eco-friendly cup or can pay more attention to some sustainable products while shopping to make more sustainable consumption decisions. If you're not using eco-friendly cups, just buy one. We can slowly start decreasing the usage of PET bottles one by one. This is our short-term goal. The long-term goal was just addressed that everyone can care about one thing. For example, everybody who has lost weight is aware of how closely calories and weight reduction are tied. People who care about their body shape will naturally pick up the package and look at the food calories and nutritional value tables on the back while buying food at the grocery store. The same is true for environmental protection. We want to talk about carbon reduction or slowing down carbon emissions because we hope that everyone has a mindset to look at the origin of this product, the source of shoe materials, or some of the manufacturing process. Everyone needs to understand that this is not something that can be achieved in an instant. Similarly, it is not possible to start calorie control now and lose weight tomorrow. Circular economy, carbon reduction, or reducing the climate crisis is also the same idea, carbon footprint won’t decrease because you bought a water bottle today. It is a staged goal that can only be gradually achieved. I believe this is a fact and an action that citizens all over the world should participate in, not just people who understand it, in order to really improve this situation. In all of Ccilu’s cases, whether long-term or short-term, I believe everyone’s willingness to comprehend is positive. Even if you don’t like this pair of slippers at least you understand what a circular economy is. When you want to buy a pair of slippers again next time you can select sustainable products once you understand the circular economy. In my opinion, this is a great cycle.

18. What concerns do you have for your products?

The atmosphere of our company is full of creativity. Everyone has the courage to dream big, create breakthroughs, and be willing to explore different possibilities. However, there are some fundamental ideas that guide our business, such as brand management or innovation. These two main parts will be operated by the three elements I will mention later on which are our core ideology. We must reach these three elements before we can launch the products. Our products must be lightweight, comfortable, easy to wear, have extremely high functional ability, be sustainable, and confirm continuous environmental protection. Our company proceeds around these three core ideologies. You can also say that these are all concerns. Employees are invited to suggest some unique ideas for our manufacturing, marketing, or design processes. So, we can have some brainstorming or genuine sparks together.

19. How do you bring interest to customers to coffee grounds and plastic bottle products?

Just now, I discussed several social experiments that can also help everyone to find the right way to participate, such as scavengers. When you see the cart being wheeled by them while you are out on the street, you may want to help but feel embarrassed. You may have helped him cross the road today, but what will they do tomorrow? I think what we can do is open up more ways for everyone to participate, such as a scavenging experience. You might not have understood how to assist the scavenger aunt in the past, but you can understand, and buy their products. Also, after you understand their life as a scavenger, you can know what recycling items he needs. For example, after you took part in the scavenging experience, you will know what can be sold and what can’t. Thus, you can collect recyclable items in your home. When you know there are scavengers near your home, you can give them these items once you pass by. This is also a way to participate in. Once you participate in the event, you realize that you can accomplish environmental protection easily. Through different social experiments, we want to let everyone know how to participate. It’s not about you having not enough money, not enough financial resources, not enough time, or can’t find a way to join. We have created many ways, so everyone can not only buy the products but actively participate. For a circular economy, no matter how much money is spent on advertisements to appeal to everyone's interest or how much promotional language is to make everyone resonate is secondary. These are inferior to a step-by-step execution. I think there is a quote that matches this situation: butterflies will come when flowers are in efflorescence. Because of the circular economy, everyone's operational approach may vary from traditional companies, people with various personalities, and businesses with a wide variety of personalities are similar. We will look at the things that are in front of us first and whether we are proactively working hard. After we make drastic efforts, we have no fear of being questioned or no one coming up to support us.

20. How do you use coffee grounds and plastic bottle products to unite society and face environmental issues?

As I just mentioned, in addition to the social re-experiment, each of our products is bound. We will donate part of our revenue to relevant issues for the cycle of goodness. We will publicly announce the operating figures of our websites, the amount of PET bottles recycled, how much we help, and how many trees we plant, and clearly disclose these data on our website. The customers will support this pair of shoes when they see our websites. They will know what we improve in society, how much carbon footprint or plastic bottles we reduce, or how many scavengers we help. This allows the customers to clearly know the statistical data which naturally means uniting and having a goal to chase together.

21. Do you have plans to use the technology for coffee ground products on other waste materials?

Despite recycling coffee grounds and PET bottles, our company also recycles silicon wafers and other waste. These patented technologies are created based on the physical properties of each item, recycled materials, and waste, through research, development, and upward recycling. For example, the Xpresole technology will be used to create coffee grounds shoes and PET bottles will use Greenplax technology to create the shoes. Then, of course, we will apply it to other waste applications. The pair of shoes we just mentioned is made up of PET bottles, yet, we also added oyster shells. It can not only solve rubbish issues on the southwest coast but also increase the functional properties of the shoes. We are open to integrating different physical properties. But we would need to determine whether the physical properties are soluble first. Furthermore, after the final products are released as a whole, whether consumers can wear them is what we care about. We are open to different physical qualities as long as they can pass the quality test and are qualified.

22. Does your company intend to combine with different industries to create new possibilities? If so, which companies?

In fact, we are doing it, we think about any business resonance or cooperation on the demand. For example, we cooperate with ECCO. It is a recycling machine and you can put it on the street for 24 hours. It’s a machine that can work without people operating it. The machine is a drone you can cast batteries, plastic bottles, or cups. The ECCO organization itself recycles plastic bottles. We also cooperate with them To allow the exchange of the fans that support us, To understand each other, or to cooperate strategically. If they are also collecting PET bottles, this will be a strategic cooperation to give us the collected PET bottles as our shoe’s raw materials. In addition, there is also cooperation on our demands, such as some businesses. Last year, there was a company called Wan Hai Shipping. I don’t know if you have heard of it. Wan Hai purchased 10,000 pairs of blue and white slippers. As their freebee for the annual festival, Or gifts for employees. Therefore, these are the cooperation on demand. Big companies also have the concept of ESG, and they understand the concept of transformation to green businesses. They hope to gradually use their employ's consumables or gifts to break away from traditional petrochemical raw materials consumption. The action of buying green products is cooperation in terms of demand,  so in fact, many different industries of ours often come to us to ask whether they can cooperate. We talk about how our objectives and ideals match. ​ If so, we'll cooperate together.

23. Does your company plan to have cross-field cooperation to infiltrate the circular economy into more brands?

In the past, we have worked with Warner on several IP licensing projects. This year, this pair of slippers will also cooperate with Taipei city’s mascot Bravo to launch Bravo’s slippers. There is a pair of slippers called Cody, which is a loafer made up of coffee grounds, which had also launched its cooperation with Bravo. In the future, we look forward to communicating with more celebrity icons. Combining this with more celebrities' IP will be achieved gradually in our plan.

24. What inspired coffee boots and PET bottle slippers?

The history of the CEO and Ccilu is a company with more than 40-year experience in the shoe industry. For example, sandals and clogs are all several shows Ccilu created using the background in the shoe industry. Our company's founder grew up in the shoe industry in the past which is accustomed to the resource waste that results from the whole shoe-making process. This is the same idea as fast fashion. There will always be some scraps of fabric left over after cutting, and these fabrics can’t be used to create more textiles anymore. These fabrics are made from traditional petrochemical raw materials and can’t be put together again. What is the inspiration for our coffee grounds and PET bottles products? Since our company’s founder was a child, he has observed how much trash is produced in the shoe industry. If we want to survive in the market today, we need to find a unique road for ourselves. Over the past years, the CEO wants to stop creating new trash and turn this garbage into a pair of new shoes. If we have the ability to create them. Through our CEO’s deployment in the past few years, we found many possibilities, visited many experts,  and formed our own research group to develop these patented technologies. We have Ccilu and different styles of eco-friendly shoes for these reasons.

25. Taking the slippers as a starting point, what expectations do you have for development and extension for the future? 

We will choose Taiwanese traditional blue and white slippers and put a Taiwan drawing on its sole. It’s a product that pays respect to the traditional spirit of Taiwan. We put Taiwan on the sole of this pair of shoes because we used recyclable plastic bottles from Taiwan, Taiwan’s patented technology, and Taiwan’s local supply chain to make a pair of blue and white slippers that truly belong to MIT.  I hope our Ccilu’s patented technology can give Taiwan’s citizen's spirit a new look at environmental protection. This slipper is…What we want to deliver to our consumers through the slippers is…It’s a slipper we aren’t very concerned about whether this pair sells well like some popular shoes. It’s actually an ideal type of product when it’s also a product of the circular economy. We hope people can understand the problems encountered by the ocean through this pair of slippers and what happens to the disadvantaged groups in the fields. Furthermore, we wish everyone could know Taiwan has technology that is advanced enough to achieve garbage recycling. This is what our Taiwanese shoes look like. Therefore, in the future, we will keep hoping that the focus will still be on this slipper’s essence. For instance, how we could reduce more carbon, make it a negative carbon emission, or even create a product with zero carbon footprint. We wish to cooperate with a well-known IB for authorization, instead of changing from its blue and white patterns.

26. What challenges did you face during the process of making plastic bottle-made slippers?

This question is actually similar to the previous one. Any style of shoes in terms of output of  perception faces more difficulty in quality assurance. We will examine the color to see whether it’s uneven or more color should be added. This is an issue of recycling politics. For example, our PET bottles come from beach cleaning and scavengers. As you all know, Covid-19, which occurred a few years ago, made it impossible for us to invite everyone to join an activity to clean up trash. In addition, we originally focused on the plastic bottles that were found on the beach. However, because of Covid-19, we can’t scavenge,  can’t host an event to clean the beach, And can’t invite everyone to gather together. Therefore, since these PET bottles in the ocean are left from the land, we should prevent the rubbish issues on the land first. that's why we chose to continue to cooperate with Scavenger. This is an adjustment in our strategy. Which is mainly because of Covid-19. So we need to pay more attention to the manufacturing process, quality control in terms of shoe material, and our previous explorations.  In social experiments, we often need to make breakthroughs in the difficulties in reality weather, environment, or integration of action. In fact, there is another problem. Since everyone doesn't understand, they won’t know the reasons this pair of shoes sell at such an expensive price. This is different from other things since it’s a problem that consumers can’t understand. However, I think in the past two years of operating a circular economy, what I have seen despite other countries is the more understanding of Taiwanese toward circular economy in recent years.  For instance, despite accurate statistics of the data, we can talk about the interaction between the community. When this pair of shoes was first launched, we received a lot of doubt about its price. People don’t understand what a circular economy is and why they need to use a plate’s price to buy a pair of slippers.  In the beginning, we thought we could communicate with consumers by participating in some competitions and selections to complete our background information. For example, we went to participate in the MIT quality test and investigate how the quality can be optimized. We were honored to be selected by MIT which represents the idea that our quality is high enough to pass the selection. At the same time, we participate in many ESG and CSR selections. We went to these competitions to assess our social impact or whether we are just daydreaming and being complacent. We can also know whether we are following society’s trends or already stand out. We learned and got a lot from attending these selections and competitions. I think there are many difficulties that will be encountered. Whether the difficulties in the manufacturing process or urging everyone to respond to our call and help everyone comprehend our products better. Everything goes back to the two quotes I told you at the beginning, the first one is “a house built on sand will collapse sooner or later” and “Butterflies will come when flowers are in efflorescence.” There is a logic in the application of the circular economy to do the things in front of you well to make sustainable businesses. Despite getting applause or not, I think consumers’ confidence in your products will increase over time. For example, the difficulties we encountered at the beginning such as the doubt from consumers questioning your product’s high price have gradually disappeared in these two years. We can’t assure that these voices will completely disappear. Yet, even if there is such a voice on our website,  you will discover that other fans of our brands have actually assisted us in response to their comments,  saying that you don’t understand how it works.  I feel touched by their actions. We can get rid of everyone’s doubt and still work hard on this pair of slippers or different aspects of our products. Everyone can gradually increase their confidence in the consumption of our products. For these activities, our Wanhua laboratory, these experiences, or some beach cleaning activities’ participation are getting closer and closer.

27. How do you inspire and attract more people to join in on cleaning beaches and recycling plastic bottles?

We didn’t rely on advertisements and we won’t harass our members. We prefer to do everything step by step. When the media notice you, they will naturally assist you with promotion and publicity. When you win an award in the selection, they will notice the potential of your products. In addition, I believe when consumers or citizens in Taiwan discover you earned the confirmation of these prizes, assailed by these selections but still stand, they will gradually participate in or support you when they are interested in your concepts. We urge everyone to join our events instead of giving money in exchange for sales revenue. This is not the path we will take. However, the impacts of this method will take time to take hold, once it does.  I believe that every fan is our true supporter instead of just a one-time buyer who won’t give you another chance.