Making reuse the new normal: Encouraging new habits with the Mercari Ecobox

The Mercari Ecobox is a place for people to temporarily store and periodically look over the clothes, books, trinkets, dishes, and other items they no longer use but cannot bring themselves to throw away as trash.

Upcycling the Kashima Antlers 30th Anniversary Banner: Can we create value by giving new life to things that would otherwise be thrown away?

If you’ve gone to a sporting event, you’ve probably seen the large team banners that are often displayed in the stands. In 2021, the Kashima Antlers celebrated its 30th anniversary, and the banner that was made to commemorate this event, known as the “Anniversary Wall,” was displayed for just this one year. The banner was going to be thrown away once the season was over.
That’s when we thought: Instead of putting this durable, sturdy material to waste, can we make use of it in some other way? Could we maybe turn it into commemorative items for our loyal Kashima Antlers fans? That was the start of this upcycling project. Mercari and the Kashima Antlers worked together to turn this idea into a reality, in order to achieve Mercari’s goal of effectively using finite resources and creating new value.

Can we use old clothes to make new fashion? A Green Friday sustainable fashion show with no new items!

We held a fashion show where stylists created outfits by combining clothes they bought on Mercari with secondhand clothes brought in by users. Through this event, we aimed to show the public the potential and fun of mixing and matching old clothes to make new fashion.

How can we educate new generations about the circular economy? Original cup upcycling workshop with parents and children

As part of a series of events held for our users, Mercari held a special workshop event for parents and children to create their own cups and plates using B-grade items from the famous Nagasaki Sagamiyaki-style ceramic brand Maruhiro. Participants of this workshop were able to learn about the circular economy by working with B-grade items that normally would go to waste, and using upcycling techniques to create items with new value.

Can the value of waste materials and unwanted goods be revitalized through creativity?

For this project, we created chairs and the Mercari logo mark for the entrance to Mercari’s Tokyo office using a variety of scrap materials. Our goal is to give new value to items that are considered trash, not only by making them useful again and creatively modifying them, but also by making them into a new form of art.

What is necessary to make reuse of packaging materials the new standard? #PassOnMercariEcoPack

With the aim of offering a reusable choice for packaging materials, Mercari launched the Mercari Eco Pack in June 2019 and distributed about 10,000 units on a trial basis. Through this experiment, we were able to test whether users would accept reusing packaging materials as a new practice and culture.