Billboards and movie posters have a life span of few weeks after which they are destined to end up in a landfill and are accountable for 100 pounds of plastic waste.

Remakes is a company that repurposes these discarded billboards and posters to create placemat; nit just any placemat...technologically enhanced mats with QR code. Each mat is one-of-a-kind, and each set is created from the same billboard to bring a certain similarity between them.

We got in touch with one of the co-founder of Remakes, Ben Wiener, who has been very kind to spare some time for an interview with us. Catch it below:


Tell us about the inception of Remakes. How did this idea of producing mats from recycled items occur to you?

My two partners and I set out to identify consumer products that could be made at mass-market scale from recycled or reclaimed materials. Early on, we met with a designer named Nomi Gerstein who was working with reclaimed billboards, making bags and wallets from the material. A few months later I was speaking with a housewares distributor in the Central US who asked me if I had any ideas for a new type of eco-friendly placemat. The billboard material was an obvious fit, so we started to experiment and develop a few concepts. They came out great so we went full-scale and made them into a business.


















The concept of using 'QR Symbol' is very unique and innovative. How did it strike to you?

I had read some articles about QR being very popular in Asia and starting to enter other markets. I was immediately captivated by the idea of turning an object into a communications medium using QR, to create a connection with the consumer. We found that our placemats, because of where they had come from and what they were made of, were great conversation pieces at the table. We thought: Wouldn’t it be even more engaging, and have even greater impact, if the placemats could help raise environmental awareness on an ongoing basis, not just as a static object? The QR code on each of our placemats links to a webpage that has information about our use of reclaimed billboards, and also has a daily tip or fact about the environment, ecology or green living that we update every day- so the placemat becomes not just a conversation piece, but an ongoing conversation starter about environmental awareness.
















What were the main hurdles you had to face in the pre-launching phase?

It was a real learning process and we were starting from scratch. We had to learn about the dynamics of both the housewares market and the green products market, about the manufacturing process for our unique products, create a supply chain – al the things anyone needs to start a business, though nobody had ever made placemats from 100-pound plastic billboards before. Thankfully I have great partners, and we work with great companies, such as our suppliers and service providers, as well as Abe’s Market, which really saw the promise of ReMakes early on and helped us get set up to sell our products to the public.

















What all methods are you relying on to spread your word around?

Press coverage has been a great catalyst for us. We’re also using social media like Facebook – we have a branded Facebook fan page and when you access our QR landing page wit a smartphone, there’s also a link to our Facebook page on the QR landing page to make it easy for people to share our great concept with friends.
















What's next? Are you working on more such projects?

Absolutely! Based on the overwhelmingly positive reception and feedback since we launched ReMakes placemats just a few weeks ago, we are definitely going to push the brand forward. We’ve already upgraded the design of the placemats – the new production runs have produced amazing new designs and our customers can now choose placemat sets by color scheme. We’ll also be launching additional products for other applications, which I can’t talk about yet because they are still in production. The best way to stay up to date on our progress is via our Facebook page – well be making some new product announcements soon.


What message do you have for our readers?

Some things in life are even better the second time around.

Thanks Ben for taking the time out for a wonderful with interview with us, we wish you all the success in the future. :)