Ecoface

The house of recycling

A life and business experience that has lasted seven years up to now and culminated with the realization of the “Empedocle” project, an innovative technology system, but above all for the search for a personal path to the “industrial renaissance”. An ideal dimension in which the humanities return to guide social and economic activities, with their power to plumb territories inaccessible to science and technology.

Story

Literally and literally

It all started with a dream

This story starts on a December morning in 2011 . It may seem a bit unusual, but the truth is that Ecoface was literally born from a dream .

A real dream, which is made in the middle of the night.

Of those you do not remember when you wake up but you want at all costs to re-emerge from the morning torpor. Of those who decide when to come back, suddenly, with disarming clarity.

It happened when I got a hot chocolate from the dispenser in the office. Throwing the light brown glass among the others, inside the basket, the dream resurfaced with the force of the sparkling wine that bursts from the bottle just uncorked.

A dream not to be forgotten

I was in a huge shed full of cars, wrapped in a cloud of steam, like certain stations you see in movies when big steam trains arrive.

There were many people who dealt with complicated levers and mechanisms; some ducts produced a paste similar to toothpaste, but it was not toothpaste, because when cooled it turned into something similar to hail, which filled a huge metal cube.

One felt like diving into it as children do in those large boxes full of colored balls.

A business for two brothers

That evening, while I was having dinner with my brother, I told about the dream, and I concluded that it must be something that had to do with the recycling of plastic.

In the days that followed, the idea did not fade, but continued to mature and reappear in family discussions, as if she was trying on her own to find a more defined form.

For some time we often talked about starting our own business initiative, something that could give us a way to invest in our future.

How to climb a mountain

So I began to devote myself to research on the internet, to understand what technologies and plants existed in the field of waste recycling.

Going back to that period makes me think of all the sacrifices, fears, difficulties that arise when you want to create a start-up. Unfortunately, a good idea is not enough to go on and make it concrete, sometimes the path is very similar to a mountain path full of landslides and chasms ready to swallow you.

The human element

But with the commitment and willpower that we put into it, the project slowly took shape, and finally at the beginning of 2013 we were able to start the construction site.

Together with our first waste recycling plant, we were building an idea. That of approaching the world of waste by proposing a curious marriage between factory processes and culture.

That is, we were beginning to think that even a matter as swampy as waste management in Sicily could benefit from contact with a more “humanistic” vision.

Recycling as a cultural heritage

It was no longer a question of just working well with things, but of opening up to dialogue with people and sharing our ideas.

Because we were aware of the fact that reaching the separate collection percentages imposed by the European Community would have been impossible by working only on industrial plans and collection methods. It would have been necessary to get closer to the citizens once and for all, making them protagonists of a mission of civility and common sense.

For this reason, in addition to our selection system, we have invested a lot in training programs dedicated to young people, in communication and in the organization of meeting and cultural opportunities.

Yes, because on closer inspection the concept of recycling our waste contains many civil values ​​that can enter the cultural heritage of a society, making it more mature and aware.

Industry + Art

After seven years that embryonic and solemn dream is still alive, it has been filled with new meanings and keeps us anchored to our initial values.

He returned to motivate us for the new challenge of the second plant, which we wanted to build not only with the bricks of ideas but also with the colors of beauty. Dressing the new shed with an imposing representation of the thought of Empedocles of Agrigento. Our 2,500 year old mentor.