[英语阅读]奥地利创意小店“变废为宝”

Austrian shop turns trash into bespoke designs

奥地利首都维也纳一家名为Gabarage的创意设计小店为顾客提供“废品”定制服务，塑料盖、电脑芯片、旧篮球、甚至弃置的X光片等“废品”经过他们重新设计改造后可变身为各种用途的生活用品，这不仅充分利用废弃物品，减少了对环境的压力，同时还为人们的生活增添了乐趣。这家小店的理念并不是传统意义上的“循环利用”，而是将各种废弃物重新改造，开发其更大的利用价值，可以称得上是“变废为宝”。

In Vienna's design shop Gabarage, customers can rifle through trash, pick what they like to create their own individual bag; unique in color, size, form and applications.

In Vienna's design shop Gabarage, customers can rifle through trash, pick what they like to create their own individual bag; unique in color, size, form and applications.

"It is not at all easy, but it is a lot of fun," said 25-year-old Sophie Schauerhofer, poring over piles of used plastic covers, old computer chips, Plexiglas and discarded X-rays for her customized "gaba bag."

All the single pieces of waste Sophie chooses are put together by the creative team of "gabarage upcycling design."

"Upcycling stands in contrast to recycling," Daniel Strobel explains the core of the project helping to prepare disadvantaged people for the labor market. "We upvalue products innovatively, instead of just reusing them."

Gabarage also says companies can give them their residual material or industrial waste which they turn into ecologically sustainable design pieces and commodities -- for company employees as incentive goods, or for the workshop's showroom, where customers can also buy prefabricated pieces.

Petra Riess, the owner of a creative agency, has opted for a yellow kindergarten bag for her son Anton and a flower pot made out of an old football.

"I take great pleasure in the football as I always look for special things like these," she says while stowing her shopping in a paper bag made of old movie posters.

Will she tell others about her new exclusive objects?

"Of course not," she said laughing, "Or else everybody will have the same!"