Every year, 62 million tons of e-waste ends up in landfill. FOTOFOTO upcycles this would-be trash into delightful, zero waste film cameras. Capturing memories on film is a breath of fresh air in our distracted digital lives. For casual photographers, the easiest way to enjoy the magic of film is with disposable cameras. But “dispos” are quite wasteful with 99% sent to landfill after 1 use, where they remain as e-waste forever.

FOTOFOTO is a radical re-think of the disposable camera. They dismantle disposed dispos at their Brooklyn studio and salvage functional camera cores. To these cores they add their SmartShot printed circuit board, which adds advanced light sensing for better-lit photos. They then place the up-cycled hardware in their signature grooved housing. Thus the FF-1 camera is born.

Building this amazing product is just the starting point; FOTOFOTO is a circular business that recycles every single FF-1 camera and produces zero waste. When customers purchase an FF-1, it comes with a mail-in development service. After shooting 1 roll of FOTOFOTO’s unique cinema-grade film, customers mail them their cameras with the film roll still inside. They develop the film and send it back to the customer, then carefully disassemble and refurbish the cameras. After a thorough quality check they re-assemble the cameras and send them back out to capture more memories.