――What led to the establishment of Potential?

I got the idea for Potential when I went to a student club room to meet a friend who belonged to the robotics club and came across green circuit boards of various shapes and sizes that were going to be thrown away. I thought they were very cute, and from the moment I saw them, I began to wonder what I could use them for. That's when I decided to make accessories out of them. I wanted to make more people aware of the possibilities of scrap materials and use electronic waste to spread the joy of doing something you love.
So, drawing on my experience from a student organization I was a member of in high school, I started by opening stalls at events and running workshops. As I did this, I decided that I wanted to involve my friends in these activities on an ongoing basis, so I established a student organization, and we have since grown to 13 members.

――What are your goals and what kind of specific activities do you undertake?

Based on the mission of creating a culture where everyone can freely express themselves, Potential produces and sells accessories made from electronic waste, and we hold hands-on workshops where people can make their own accessories from electronic waste.
Electronic waste is the vehicle by which we provide people with opportunities to find something they love and to realize their own potential. Through our activities, our hope is to reduce the number of people who have lost sight of what they really want to do, and at the same time, to encourage those people who have a tough time of trying new things.
Also, based on the belief that everything its useful and has its own unique charm, we put out the message that just like our accessories made from electronic waste, everyone has the ability to shine over and over again.
Electronic waste is a global problem, and it is something that we cannot solve by ourselves. But with our activities, we hope, first and foremost, to make people aware of the problem so that we can all work toward a long-term solution.

――What have your activities taught you and what sense of growth and satisfaction do they give you?

We are only in our third year, but we have already run stalls at more than 100 events. By running stalls and holding events, we believe that we have increased our visibility and shared with many people the appeal and potential of electronic waste.
Potential is also working on new projects. One event we organize is the Bunkai Masturi (Disassembly Festival), which makes people aware of the electronic waste issue by having them dissemble old computers. So far, we have held this three times and have attracted a total of 120 participants. Some of those participants have told us things like, "It was good to learn that things that would otherwise be thrown away can be repurposed into something attractive" and "I was able to learn about the problem of electronic waste.” That is a very rewarding feeling.

――What do you want to achieve going forward?

We are thinking about trying a more direct approach to achieving our mission. Specifically, we plan to develop and sell accessory kits to bring our current content to a wider audience.
In this day and age, I think a lot of us spend less and less time on finding things we like, and we lose opportunities to challenge ourselves and allow ourselves to be exposed to many different things. We believe that our accessory kits will allow us to offer a new way of seeing things to many more people. Regardless of the means, we will continue to tackle our mission of creating a culture where everyone can freely express themselves.