An aeroplane from household waste? A start-up makes it possible
At Miniwiz in Taipei everything is made from waste: the walls, the chairs – and soon a full aircraft. Now the start-up is expanding to Germany.
Handelsblatt correspondent Stephan Scheuer visits Miniwiz in Taiwan. There, everything is made from waste: the walls, the chairs – and even a full aircraft is to be built entirely from rubbish. Now the start-up is expanding to Germany.
Background
This report profiles one of many Chinese and Taiwanese start-ups that between 2015 and 2018 tried to address classic environmental problems using technological means – here, converting household waste into usable fuel. Similar approaches are being pursued worldwide (Enerkem in Canada, Fulcrum BioEnergy in the United States), but industrial breakthrough has so far remained rare. The complexity of the chemical processes and the variable quality of the raw material make a profitable operating model difficult to achieve.
China’s waste problem remains enormous. The country produced more than 300 million tonnes of municipal solid waste per year in 2020 – nearly a quarter of the global total. In response, Beijing in 2019 introduced mandatory waste sorting in Shanghai, which was extended to further large cities in the years that followed. Enforcement was strict: neighbourhood committees monitored who put what in which bin and when; fines were imposed for violations.
Waste-to-energy incineration has since come to play a significant role. China now has the largest capacity for such plants in the world – measured in tonnes processed, it surpasses Europe and the United States combined. Operators are often state-linked conglomerates or companies such as China Everbright International. Criticism comes from environmental groups pointing to air pollution and hard-to-control dioxin emissions.
For start-ups like the one profiled in this report, the same basic pattern applies as for many Chinese innovators: the home market is enormous, potential state backing is strong, but competition is also fierce. Some of these companies have established themselves; others have failed because of gaps in the recycling infrastructure. The overarching trend is clear: China is investing massively in the circular economy – but solving a problem of this scale remains a task for generations.