MANILA - Furniture makers and designers in Cebu have reaffirmed their commitment to sustainable business models by raising awareness and promoting "upcycling," the organizer of the Cebu Design Week said. 

Entrepreneurs in the Queen City of the South aspire to become the collective catalyst to help the province shift to a "circular economy" where products and materials are reused, Patricia Mendoza, co-organizer of the Cebu Design Week, told ANC.

"In the linear economy, you produce, you use it and then you throw it away. With a circular economy, we want the people in the creative industry to produce items and encourage the reuse of it, so that we lessen our waste," Mendoza said.

The Cebu Design Week, which aims to raise awareness and call the whole industry to action, is a cooperative project of the Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation and the European Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (ECCP), Mendoza said.

This article was originally published on April 5, 2018 in the ABS-CBN News Online