You love bubble tea—but where does the waste go?

Zence Object has collaborated with beverage brands such as Starbucks to create customised interior decorations for several of its locations in China, and with HeyTea to create a special collection of cups. It also produces items for hotels and casinos in Macau using waste collected directly from those properties. Sio says ensuring the aesthetic appeal and practicality of its products is essential to winning clients, but the real challenge lies in delivering value beyond sustainability alone—particularly during economic downturns, when businesses tend to prioritise cost-cutting over environmental considerations.

Beyond reducing waste, Sio says using its products helps clients strengthen their brand and reach sustainability-minded consumers, opening doors to new markets and business opportunities. If companies are willing to create an internal upcycling loop—using their own waste to produce items for their operations—it could also lower long-term costs. “Sourcing materials involves both financial investment and time,” he says. “If you discard those materials, you’re essentially wasting what you initially put into them,” adding, however, that his team needs another one to two years of data to fully substantiate this argument.

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Most of the start-up’s clients are based in China where, Sio says, the government has stepped up efforts to promote sustainability through new initiatives. “In the past, we talked about being environmentally friendly, but now the focus has shifted to sustainability, which is much more comprehensive.”

Although he remains sceptical about whether some companies adopt green practices out of genuine concern about the impact of food waste, he believes lasting change comes from working closely with businesses so they can experience the benefits first-hand.

Sio’s company operates a factory capable of processing around 30 tonnes of waste per day on the mainland. To increase its impact, he aims to build a more stable and broader network of agricultural waste suppliers and introduce its technology to existing factories across China. “We can significantly shorten the recycling process by taking on a supervisory role,” he explains. “Our goal is to restructure how materials are handled at scale, so it’s not essential for us to carry out the entire upcycling process ourselves.”

To test whether its technology can operate outside its own factory, Sio’s team is launching a pilot project in Macau later in the year, where it will run a full upcycling process within a compact, lab-like space, creating a closed loop in the city.

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“We believe waste has a purpose,” says Sio, who began his career in the environmental sector recycling wood. At its core, the business is about revealing the value of materials that have long been considered useless. “We’re not just trying to increase their value two or three times. We want to multiply it by a thousand, or even tens of thousands—so that everyone can recognise that value.”

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