The Cultural Exchange Oasis (CXO) successfully organized an inspirational talk, titled “We Start When You Finish”, on 17 January 2023. The cultural talk by Ms Caroline Cheng, a world-renowned artist, curator and co-founder of Yi Design, was about solving the problem of ceramic waste management by creating eco-materials for the interior design and building industries.

The Prosperity Series by Ms Caroline Cheng.

Professor Matthew Lee introduces the speaker.

Ms Cheng started her journey in Jingdezhen, the “Porcelain Capital of the World”, in 2015 when she saw piles of ceramic waste in Jingdezhen dumped illegally. With no government policy for recycling the materials, an estimated 18 million tons of ceramic waste was mounted each year.

Colourful bricks made from recycled ceramic waste.

Ms Caroline Cheng shares her experience in turning ceramic waste into bricks and tiles.

An accomplished artist, whose work has been shown in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the British Museum in London, Ms Cheng shed light on her development of a more sustainable building material as an alternative to cement. Yi Design invented two products, YiBrick and YiTile, to propel China’s continued environmental transformation and create a more sustainable world. YiBrick is a material that can be used as permeable pavement for sponge cities to strengthen ecological infrastructure. YiTile is suitable for walls, tabletops and other interior design elements.  

Ms Cheng highlighted the advantages of the products:

-    30% lighter
-    Up to 90% recycled waste material, with zero waste
-    Rich, low-cost raw material sources
-    Simple and efficient production process
-    High comprehensive solid waste recovery rate of the products
-    Circular system in which all the materials can be recycled and reused
-    Promotes environmental sustainability, with fewer pollutants in the air and water
-    Replaces cement, which is the cause of massive carbon emissions in China

With the growing global push for sustainable construction and design, Yi Design’s products have been used by Starbucks, COS, the Shanghai Museum of Glass, Regeneration Tree, created by Aldo Cibic, Nio Life, and others.

Yi Design has plans for recycling projects and collaboration with different industries. “Our materials can be reproduced in other countries, for example, India and Brazil, which are the second- and third-largest ceramics-producing countries,” said Ms Cheng. “I believe their ceramic waste needs to be recycled as well.” 

Over 60 participants attend the talk.

Professor Matthew Lee presents a souvenir to the speaker.

The talk was followed by an interactive and engaging Q&A session. The insightful sharing by Ms Cheng inspired the participants and aroused their interest in the topic. There were further discussions between Ms Cheng and the students after the event. 

The participants respond enthusiastically during the Q&A session.

Ms Caroline Cheng interacts with students after the talk.