Renewi
Wasted.
In these strange times, at least one thing remains present in our daily lives: waste.
Covid-19 or not, we keep producing enormous amounts of waste. In January 2020, waste/recycle company Renewi – or waste-to-product company as they call themselves – approached Design Academy Eindhoven to develop new insights and solutions for consumer waste streams.
In February 2020, bachelor department Public Private kicked off with a visit at the Renewi recycle location in Eindhoven. It was an eye opening experience. On a cold and wet Tuesday morning, we realised how physical and complicated waste streams are. Despite the admirable effort to create reusable mono streams, most of what we saw was a smelly undefined heap of multi stream waste. However well organised, it felt like being on a film set of Mad Max. Is this the future? Our future?
Work to be done! We started with a role-play. Small groups of students represented different stakeholders in the world of waste: producers, consumers, recyclists, politicians and activists. This engaged and at times amusing session made clear that facts and figures are not so easy to find and if present, multi interpretable. In addition, the question of responsibility was an interesting one. The blame game was well played: all stakeholders were pointing at each other.
Based on this joined experience, students scripted a personal challenge. Something to focus on in their own daily life. This resulted in interesting questions: What on the menu if you avoid all plastic packaging? How do you relate to your own trash if you have to carry it around 24/7? Moreover, is it possible to separate a juice carton into mono stream materials?
These personal quests were the start of a more in-depth trajectory. This magazine contains 16 different approaches and perspectives on waste. From very hands-on solutions to artistic interventions. Does this collection of ideas change the world? Does it solve ‘the problem’? No. Nevertheless, it does show how creative, resilient and innovative we humans can be. The future is not a retro apocalyptic landscape in which we fight each other with chunks of metal. No. The future has already started and it might be less wasted than we think.