Yes, really.
By weight, the Tempo cooler consists mainly of two main materials: The shell construction is made from 100% recyclable aluminum, and the insulating material between the shells is a inert and completely biodegradable powder material, that can also be reclaimed and reused in new products if a product fails.
The entire cooler has been designed in such a way that the parts can be disassembled as individual parts, and almost all small parts can be disassembled by the user without any tools. While there are some plastic components in the product, these constitute around 3% of the total product weight and have been specifically designed as clean material blends without additives and without any additional processing such as co-molding or gluing; processes that affect a plastic’s ability to be recycled at end-of-life.
Where glue is used, it is used sparingly, and only between aluminum components. This means it can be more easily separated out during recycling and allow full reclaim of the raw aluminum.
But the ability to recycle at end-of-life is only the start. We are also planning a product refurbishment scheme where working parts can be reused in new products. Looking further ahead, we are also looking at alternative raw material options for all parts. Either through use of pre- or post-consumer scrap, through sourcing of sustainable raw material alternatives for plastics, or solutions that otherwise reduce embedded energy at the component level. This process will require significant testing, supplier-level R&D, economies of scale and 3rd party auditing to achieve, so for now what we have is a robust and highly-upgradable framework to build upon where energy consumption over the life cycle of the product can be optimized.