Flawer

Project Overview

Flawer, unlike most of the ordinary florist, not only arrange flower and sell them in exchange of money; they markedly delineated the broad vision for sustainability by transforming recycled flowers into art pieces or accessories in hopes of educating the community on the importance of reducing waste.

About their pledge

Case Study

Can the floral industry be sustainable?

People buy flowers to convey messages. With the wide variety of flowers and colors available, different flowers represent different forms of affection and messages, used in a range of celebratory events or even as expressions of sympathy. At times, we buy flowers simply for the aesthetic value and joy they can bring to our hearts. For mass celebratory events like Valentine’s Day, flowers are often marketed as a symbol of happiness and love. However, have we ever wondered about the environmental impact generated by the flower industry?

How is the local cut-flower industry impacting our environment?

Water Pollution	Plastic Packaging
Each different genus of flower attracts different pests and so if a farm produces a wide variety of flowers, the cocktail of pesticides used to maintain a high volume of production likely pollutes the local area causing knock-on environmental issues	When buying fresh flowers from a shop, more often than not, bouquets are wrapped in plastic cellophane which isn’t recyclable. In addition to this, floral foam made from plastic is used inside vases and vessels to keep arrangements in place as well as hydrated.

Flawer 變態美 is a florist studio located in the heart of Kuala Lumpur that believes in pushing the limits of how beauty of flowers can be preserved and appreciated in the constant flow of time.

Shayne, the founder of Flawer, has come up with ways to reduce floral and plastic waste as she feels an obligation to do so. Here are some potential main sources of waste identified from a florist studio (@sustainablefloristry):

Main sources of waste	Solutions to tackle waste generation that are currently practised at Flawer
Floral foam Plastic bouquet wrapping Plastic sleeve Hard, non-recyclable plastic bowls and trays Polystyrene/ acrylic / nylon ribbons Plastic cable ties	Foam-free floral design Paper bouquet wrapping Paper-based sleeve Replace with recyclable container Replace with cotton, linen, fibre ribbons Replace with string and rope.

“Red roses warm hearts of many,
dried / wilted roses retain memory.”

**In-house Upcycling Flawer Bins to collect unwanted flower**

Unlike the usual floral studio, Flawer provides in-house upcycling flower bins for people to drop off unwanted individual flowers / bouquets with plastic wrapping. Those used flowers were then preserved to make into accessories for sale or even used for workshops and art projects for street installations.

Shayne: “The purpose of doingflower flash at the streets or broken items is to heal the city and create awareness for the public to look at things in different perspectives especially during this pandemic. Used flowers collected from client projects will then undergo a flower preservation process or filtration, to determine which is safe to keep and which cannot be upcycled anymore.”

At times, Flawer would collect lower grade flowers which are still in good condition from a friend owning a farm in Cameron Highlands. Since 2018, Flawer has collected at least 30kg of unwanted flowers (that otherwise may potentially be thrown away). The flowers are mainly collected from (in order of amount):

***Unwanted flowers collected were made into accessories or even made into an art piece and used for workshop***

*“As an outcome from collecting the 30 kg old cut flower, approximately 15% of the total profit in 2020 was from the reselling of the collected dried flowers.”*

Flawer is passionate in working towards their mission and showing how each and every one of us could play our part in saving the planet in the easiest way.