Upcycling: a new way of recycling plastic with Eteria
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Our Eteria air purification and monitoring system was created following the upcycling principle: giving a new and better value to recycled materials.
- What does upcycling mean?
- Eteria's design
- How does the Eteria recycled air filtering and monitoring system work?
- What is Eteria for, and why should you have it?
- What differentiates Eteria from other air purifiers?
- Eteria, the air purifier with a monitoring system
Design Thinking represents the sum of the theoretical and practical innovative processes to create a product that reflects the manufacturer’s philosophy.
For Vitesy, the fundamental value is represented by sustainability. Each product and service offered must respect the resources of present generations without negatively impacting future ones.
And it is precisely for this reason that our air purifiers are 100% made following this philosophy. We cannot fight indoor air pollution without thinking about the impact that our products can have on the environment. It is a paradox that doesn’t belong to us and for which we think, create and sell solutions against indoor pollutants that respect our planet and the resources it gives us every day.
What does upcycling mean?
Upcycling is an innovative concept that is gaining widespread popularity in recent times, which means "improvement recycling" or "creative recovery".
It is a process through which objects, waste, and waste materials are recovered and reused, bringing, through recycling air, a greater value to the source material.
The origins of the term date back to an article dated 1994 when, for the first time, it was used by the mechanical engineer Reiner Pilz. In the interview released, following the communication from the European Union on the implementation of a waste disposal system, the engineer used the term downcycle to define this disposal system. By stating that what society needed is an upcycling process.
Following publication, the concept of upcycling did not gain notoriety and remained unused until 2002. In that year, Michael Braungart and William McDonough explored the topic, encouraging its development in their book Cradle to Cradle (Sustainable Production, 2021).
The concept of upcycling differs from that of recycling; in fact, upcycling is not synonymous with recycling air. Generally speaking, three essential terms can be distinguished: upcycle, recycle, and downcycle.
Recycle: understood in the traditional way, it consists of the recovery and reuse of products through recycling air processes that tend to reproduce the same functionality and usefulness of the original product.
Downcycling: refers to a process that involves a reduction in the value of the product and can be traced back to the simple disposal process.
Upcycling: on the contrary, it is a process by which the product is not only recycled but is also increased by its value, improving its quality, usefulness and/or functionality.
What does upcycling mean?
Based on the aforementioned characteristics, upcycling takes the form of a process that has numerous advantages: environmental, economic, but also social, and psychological advantages.
The term upcycling is, in fact, used with a double meaning, that is both from the artistic, architectural, and innovative design point of view, and from the point of view of the industrial recycling process.
In the first case, the upcycle process translates into the creation of new objects through the creative reuse of waste materials, using innovative techniques of intelligent design.
It is exactly from this principle that Vitesy products were born: reuse resources destined for disposal to give them new life thanks to Design Thinking. And our Eteria purification and monitoring system reflects this vision of materials reuse 100%.
Eteria's Design Thinking
Vitesy was born with a particular purpose: to provide solutions for the purification and monitoring of indoor pollution following the principle of environmental sustainability.
The corporate mission and the values that characterize our company concern achieving well-being in indoor environments for our customers. However, they do not neglect the global objectives that put the environment and the fight against climate change first.
Eteria, in fact, was created with an elegant and minimal design through the transformation of natural resources into derivatives with high added value, implementing the technologies necessary for effective purification and monitoring of indoor air.
Eteria is made entirely of recycled materials according to the Upcycling principle, which makes it not only compact and small in size but also resistant and efficient. In particular, the plastic of which most elements are composed is certified as A quality.
How does the Eteria air purification and monitoring system work?
Eteria is an indoor air purification and monitoring system. At the same time, it can purify the indoor air of your indoor spaces and provide you with pollution levels.
The air purifier has the practicality of being portable and light, with the idea of being a personal air purifier that is held next to you during the main daily actions (cooking, working on the computer, reading, relaxing) so as always to guarantee a renewed and clean air in your everyday environment.
The air purifier works through a unique technology called photocatalysis: a purification system that uses a nanomaterial such as WO3 (tungsten trioxide), making it react with the light of the LEDs positioned under the filter. This process allows elimination:
The monitoring modules are smaller than the air purifier, which has the function of monitoring the levels of pollutants in different points of the house, to provide you with a complete map of the pollution level, overall and specific room by room, of your home.
Eteria, thanks to its IoT technology, provides you in real-time through the "Vitesy Hub" app the levels of:
- Temperature
- Humidity
- VOC (volatile organic compounds)
- CO2
This system was designed precisely to allow you to move your air purifier to where you usually perform your tasks and to purify particular areas of your interior spaces if you notice through the app that they are particularly polluted.
What is Eteria for, and why should you have it?
Eteria provides you with a complete mapping of the indoor air health of your home to make you aware of the pollutants present in your indoor spaces and how to intervene to improve the quality of your indoor air.
So Eteria is not limited to purifying the air in your home and giving you a general picture of the indoor air of your spaces but allows you to be aware day by day of what the sources of pollution are and will enable you to eliminate them.
In fact, thanks also to the historical data, you will be able to trace specific changes in air quality due to your particular actions or events that occurred inside your rooms, allowing you to have more awareness of what happens in your daily life.
Eteria becomes no longer just an air purifier but a real ally to fight indoor pollution on a daily basis by recycling air through its filter.
What differentiates Eteria from other purification systems?
Following the principle of sustainability, in Vitesy, we have chosen the technology of photocatalysis, also known as PCO (Photocatalytic Oxidation). Eteria uses WO3 PCO technology, whose nanotechnology present inside the photocatalytic filter attacks pollutants by breaking their chemical bonds, transforming them into harmless substances.
We have opted for this purification methodology because it has a very important advantage over other forms of air purification on the market.
In fact, the most widespread air filtering technology is HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) technology which is certainly a valid and reliable option, but it requires continuous maintenance of the air filtering system, as its filters are designed to reach a point saturation.
We are aware that this purification methodology, although effective, involves a huge waste of materials (in fact, the air filters used are not recyclable) and a large long-term expense for the consumer (it is estimated from 50 to 100 euros per month, depending on the type. of air purifier).
This is why we have designed a perennial air filter that does not need to be replaced but which only needs to be rinsed under water 1 or 2 times a year.
Eteria, the indoor air purification and monitoring system
Improve your well-being in indoor spaces and enjoy clean and renewed air thanks to the Eteria purification and monitoring system and air filter.
Breathe better, live better!
