The Perception of Waste

When:

19 September 2012

17:30 Hour - 21:00 Hour

Event organizer:Industrial Design

Description

On Wednesday 19 September, the next meeting in the "Experience of..." will take place series will take place. The topic this time is the Perception of Waste and the meeting will be held at waste prevention and resource management specialist Milgro, Vareseweg 37, in Rotterdam.

The meeting at Milgro will start as early as 5.30 pm, there will be coffee and a sandwich.

Why the Perception of Waste?

We know from archaeological discoveries that mankind has been engaged in organised waste disposal for more than 5,000 years. Waste management is nothing new in that respect. However, efficiency has improved: pigs no longer roam the streets to dispose of waste. Hygiene has also been worked on: cities today have sewer systems instead of open gutters. However, the amount and type of "waste" we produce today has changed. Until very recently, the way we were used to dealing with raw materials, food and products focused on the long term. Waste was out of the question. The western industrial revolution changed this. The introduction of mass production brought a seemingly endless array of affordable consumer products within reach of a large part of the population. We all got used to the idea that the supply of raw materials and food was infinite.
Reality proved unruly. Raw materials can run out; sustainability is all the way back. Our view of waste is also changing. During the Experience of Waste, four experts in the field of waste prevention, raw materials, recycling, product development and creativity will introduce us to a different perspective on waste, and tell us all about waste and its relationship to raw materials -in the broad sense of the word

18.00:00 Alexander Lange, manager Knowledge and Innovation at Milgro.
Milgro is the innovation and knowledge centre for waste prevention and recycling, helping businesses and governments deal better with raw materials. For Milgro, waste is not waste, but a raw material that represents a value. And that makes it extra interesting to take waste seriously. This different view of waste ensures that waste is no longer viewed exclusively as a cost item, but that returns also become visible.

18:30 Elias van Hoek, University of Twente
Elias van Hoek is studying industrial design engineering at the University of Twente. For his graduation project, he researched solutions for the waste - especially drinking cups - left behind after a large event on behalf of waste company Twente Milieu. He conducted the research at People Creating Value, a product development agency in Enschede.

Speaker(s)

19.00 o'clock e-waste (discussion or speaker from Philips)
E-waste is not the huge pile of discarded e-mails, but the waste of discarded old, used electronics, which contains valuable raw materials.
Reusing these increasingly scarce raw materials for modern electronic devices is becoming very urgent and of great economic importance. Even Obama got involved in this!
For example, the Sustainability team Philips further developed the use of recyclate in consumer products. Philips signalled a clear need among consumers for energy-efficient products. But then they should not be inferior to 'normal' appliances in terms of performance, nor cost more. And those products came.

7.30 pm Break

8.00 pm Jan Körbes, Refunc
Originally architects, and now "waste architects", Jan Körbes and Denis Oudendijk of Refunc create experimental structures and mobile microarchitecture based on waste streams. Their mission is to "refunctionalise" discarded objects and give them a second life, often in a surprising new guise.

20:30 - 21:00 Discussion