A pair of scientists is producing pencils from old clothes – using a material process from the aerospace industry. Each pencil tells the story of the garment it contains. In the long term, these stories are intended to connect people from different continents, thus bringing the world closer together. To build their own production facility, manaomea is now launching an ambitious crowdfunding campaign.
Few things are as close to our hearts as our clothes. Therefore, people associate many fond memories with clothing. This is why they often save old clothes somewhere in the closet or basement that would otherwise have ended up in the trash long ago. Christine Arlt and Ulrich Riedel from manaomea think that these clothes deserve a different fate – and turn them into pencils.
Aerospace technology
Arlt and Riedel are scientists. She is a materials scientist, he is a chemist and engineer. Before founding manaomea, they spent many years developing technologies for satellite construction at the German Aerospace Center. They applied one of these technologies, used to produce carbon fiber parts, to textiles and patented it. Their first invention using this technology is pencils, but ultimately, much more is possible with the process. Smaller pieces of furniture or other design products are conceivable. The material is almost as malleable as plastic, as strong as wood, and as light as carbon.
Turning old into new – Upcycling
The pens not only contain the personal story of a piece of clothing, but also a full load of environmental protection. In addition to garments with personal sentimental value, manaomea makes its pens from fabric scraps from textile production. Creating high-quality new products from old items is currently a major topic in resource conservation, known as upcycling or cradle-to-cradle.
Awards for the Space Pens
Wooden pencils are made from mature trees, but only 20% of the wood is used. The rest is wood waste and is burned or pressed into particleboard. Manaomea is committed to keeping the trees standing. Their textile fibers grow back annually, and the Munich startup claims to produce virtually no waste. The "space pencils" won the European Ethical Design Award and the PSI Sustainability Award this year.
Crowdfunding for production facility
Now the founders of manaomea want to build their own production facility in Germany and mass-produce pens. To finance the construction of this facility, they have launched a crowdfunding campaign. As a thank you, you can have pens made from your own clothing.
