Let's re-evolution the materials | Susanna Martucci | TEDxVicenza

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format
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Susanna Martucci was born in Verona in 1958. In 1994 she started Alisea, a company and a art gallery to promote and sell art items, English antique trade, and design objects. During the early '90, she developed an interest for recycling and eco-sustainability, and in her TEDxTalk she explains how she started a company that produce objects reusing waste materials.

I don't know you,
but I believe in coincidences.

I think what happens to us in life
is all but casual; let me explain.

1981: I graduate in Law,
but I don't want to become a lawyer.

I enter into the commercial department
of a big company: I'll deal with sales.

But after 14 years, the company decides
to cut the whole sales branch.

Suddenly, I find myself with a team of 20
and no product to sell.

No fear, I immediately find
another chance:

now I'll deal with corporate art
and design items.

But in life, as well as in business,
surprises are always around the corner.

And less than two years after,

my partner decides
to manage sales directly.

So what does he do?

He doesn't renew the contract,
and my best agent follows him.

Once again, I'm left with no products,
and 19 people waiting for my decisions.

Well, I can tell you,
if it never occurred to you,

that's enough for someone to panic.

But the way I'm made,

one day is more than enough
to weep and moan.

I think, that's where
one's true character shows up.

I'll tell you where I think
my stamina comes from.

I'm the third daughter
of a General of the Italian Army,

and I grew up with the motto,
"Do your duty and shut up!"

On top of this,

I was an agonistic swimmer
from 11 to 16 years old

up to 20 km a day, every day,

including on Sundays,
because there were competitions.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

But when you lose, you never,
even for a moment, consider quitting.

Indeed, Mondays you're there,
in the swimming pool,

stronger and more determined than ever.

One day I said to myself,
"Well, Susanna, it's the second time

someone steals your product
and you're left with no job.

And at that moment, something clicked:
I have to make those products myself.

Except, almost any promotional item
is made in China.

I really have to make
something one-of-its-kind,

unlike anything else.

I want no competition.

It has to be the opposite
of the same old gadget.

- But what, exactly?
- And here's the case.

I'm in a bar.

A person I barely know
just gave me a notebook.

Nothing special,
but I open it and I read,

"No tree was cut
to produce this notebook."

A light, a flash stroke me:

a seemingly deep hidden memory
I didn't even remember to have.

1982: I'm on a train compartment.

By my side, two university professors
are talking, and I'm listening to them,

"We're all sitting on a huge garbage pile.

It's a huge problem

for the future generations
and for the environment,

and we absolutely have
to start thinking to do something.

Certainly, waste disposal business
will be a thriving one, tomorrow."

Gosh, at that moment, these people
were talking about the future.

I was 23, but they were
also talking about me.

Well, 16 years later,
the dots magically connected.

The notebook, the train - I found my way!

I will produce design,
"Made in Italy" items,

but they'll only have to be produced
with recycled or reused materials.

Attached to them,
there will be a story I can tell

through the materials they're made of.

I will brand them "Communicating Objects."

But you know, we were in the late 90s.

Aside from recycled paper
and recycled leather,

there wasn't much
to be found on the market.

So what will I do?

Well, I try to ask my customer,

"What do you usually throw away?
What's your waste?"

And I'll try to make
unique objects for them.

Well, over the years, we really made
a lot of communicating objects.

I brought some of them here today.

I visited a customer,
it's a tomato canning company.

As usual, I ask, "What's your waste?"

And they answer, "Dry tomato skins."

Gosh, how will I give a second life
to a pile of tomato dry skins?

Well, I know Lorenzo, a designer

running an artisanal business
and making beautiful wax items.

"Lorenzo, what about
putting my dry tomato skin

inside your wax objects?"

"Look Lorenzo, tomato dry skin
is so beautiful,

your objects will look
even greater, you will see."

And between bee wax and dry tomato skin,

flower pots are born,
tabletops, and candles.

Now, instead, I'm visiting
a marketing and communication manager

who works for a dealer of a big car brand.

She has to prepare some gadgets,

and she likes my idea to use
recycled and reused materials.

She has a shoestring budget.

On the other hand,
she talks about 100,000 pieces.

I ask the same question:
what are your waste product?

She said, "Components
of decommissioned cars."

Colored car lights immediately come
to my mind: red, orange.

And so I think, let's make a pen.
She likes the idea.

The car light recycled
material is purchased

using the customer's indications.

But then, how can you make a pen?

A mold for a pen's body,
back then, cost 70,000 euros.

Quick math: 100k pieces, €70k:
70 cents just for the mold,

while 18 cents buy a finished Chinese pen.

That's unfeasible, nobody would buy them.

But we were in the early 2000s.

Italian manufacturers are complaining,

decimated as they are
by Chinese competition.

I wonder: how many underused molds
can there be in our territory?

The research brings me to Gigi.

Gigi is a pen manufacturer,
and he has a mold.

I go to Gigi and say,

"Gigi, I give you the plastic,
you put the mold,

and together we'll make a pen."

And combining my plastics
with Gigi's mold,

pens are made out of car lights.

Together with Gigi,
I re-evolution his pen.

Well guys, I love this business so much.

So let's recapitulate --

(Applause)

Let's recapitulate:

I can recuperate unused molds
among local businesses;

I can slash down the cost of materials

by taking advantage
of recycled and reused materials;

I help local craftsmanship;

and I make unique objects
for my customers.

Everyone is winning!

Of course, as you all can imagine,
this hasn't been an easy path to take.

But what pushed me to endure

was the awareness
I was doing a healthy business.

Plus, I wasn't polluting
the land I lived on.

Indeed, I was somewhat
helping to remediate it.

So despite the hardships I went through,

I love this business
more and more every day.

Without even noticing it,
I created a circular economy.

Let me explain what it is -

not because I'm an economist
but because they also explained it to me.

A circular economy is
a self-regenerating one.

It's a system where all production lines
are conceived to make sure

that someone's waste
is someone else's resource.

Well, I did it for 20 years:

unconsciously, at the beginning;
now, with more and more awareness.

For I have up cycled tomato's dry skins,

namely I reused a waste material

and through a creative process
I managed to create another material.

What did I do with pens, instead?

I merely re-cycled them,

following the supply chain
of car lights' reuse and recycle

which, through a new productive process,
I used to make my pens.

But what am I actually doing
at the end of the day?

With my objects, I'm
extending a material's life;

but eventually, this doesn't save them
from the landfill,

or they'll end up
in the recycling supply chain.

After 20 years,
I want to do something more.

But what, exactly?
And here's still the case.

In 2012, I got a phone call in the office.

Cristina saw my objects at an exhibition.

She loved the idea and wanted me
to design her promotional items.

Cristina is the handy woman of Vittorio.

Vittorio has a company
that manufactures graphite electrodes.

Of course, objects have
to be made with their own waste.

And their waste is graphite powder.

Wait, waste? Graphite powder?
It's so beautiful to me.

I assure you graphite powder
looks gorgeous.

I can only see it as a prime material.

And hey, we all know that pencils
are made of graphite.

And pencils are quintessential
promotional items.

Well, Vittorio used
to dispose of 12 tons a year

of "inevitable" waste graphite powder.

At a considerable cost
for his company, by the way.

Do you know where does
graphite powder usually end up?

In a landfill, directly underground.

It used to be a hopeless waste product.

Well, we absolutely have
to come up with something.

I start looking for a "Pencil Gigi."

And little did I know

no one manufactures
pencils in Italy any more.

I immediately made up my mind

to become Italy's
only pencil manufacturer.

And of course, my pencil--

(Applause)

And of course,
how is my pencil going to be?

Innovative, distinguishable
from any other pencil;

-it's made in Italy, for goodness sake!

It has to be perfect.

As you might have guessed by now,
I'm a networker by nature.

I knew Andrea some years ago,
we did some works together.

Andrea is an expert
in productive processes,

and he knows very well
the molding materials.

Then Marta, an architect
and a fantastic designer.

And working with them,
after almost a year of research,

"Perpetua la matita" was born.

(Applause)

Perpetua is a real re-evolution

because for the first time, we did
something that didn't exist before:

we might call it self-cycling!

Self-cycling consists
in self-consuming the waste product.

So, Perpetua users recycle
and consume, by writing,

15 grams of graphite.

Do you know
why are pencils made of wood?

They usually have two glued wooden shells
in order to protect the graphite mine,

which stains your hands,
and it's very fragile.

Well, there's no wood in Perpetua's body:

it's 80% made of Vittorio's graphite,
and it doesn't stain your hands.

And what about the pencils
with an eraser behind?

They have a tiny metal collar,

whose job is to tie
the eraser to the body.

Well, Marta didn't like that collar.

A tragedy: my pencil will not have
that ugly collar, period. OK.

And I hated the glue, by the way,
so we were on the same wavelength.

Poor Andrea's tests after tests.

Eventually, we managed to fuse
the eraser directly to the graphite body.

Graphite and eraser
glued in a single body.

And by the way, did you ever try
to write with a pencil?

The mine gets broken
and no sharpener is around?

Perpetua solves this problem for you

because it writes
even without a sharp mine.

You can sharp it later on, if you feel to.

And then, when I get angry

- my coworkers know that,
they're in the last rows -

I can take my Perpetua,

throw it on the ground
and pick it back up.

Perpetua was made in such a way
it doesn't break when it falls down.

Thank you!

(Applause)