BNO NOORD: DESIGNER AS WASTE PROCESSOR

Are designers the new waste processors? Or is this nothing more than a postpone of the elimination of waste-producing business models. Does plastic waste still exist in the future?

New sustainable insights ask designers to be keen on the story behind the materials they use. How sustainable is the product chain, what is the residual value of the design or does it has the eternal circular life? Very often, sympathetic and sustainable initiatives by designers get entangled in the network of old and existing business models. These models are tied to contracts and stocks that need to be consumed, or they provide large groups of people with an income. That's not something that you just throw away easily. Besides that, it's more and more easy to reach large groups of people with targeted marketing campaigns. So in fact, we just all want the same. However, beneath the surface, an online community is growing that is ready to tackle the plastic problems.

Speakers
Precious Plastic is a project of Dave Hakken that’s build on a worldwide community and a strong platform where people show each other how, from a local sea container with simple machines, you can process discarded plastic into new products of plastic. With version 4, the project of Precious Plastic is growing: bigger machines, platform subgroups with worldwide bazaars where users sell their recycled products and purchase new machine parts.

Thomas Hoogewerf will visit us and tells us about the future plans and ambitions of Precious Plastic. Is plastic waste a lifeline for micro-organizations or is it still a problem? Ing. Angela Greco will also share her view on this. About the positive impact, but also about the cons of sustainable initiatives that grow from the bottom, up to movements that have been widely supported. Ing. Angela Greco is a researcher at the University of Groningen and teaches in alliances for sustainable entrepreneurship and social paradoxes.

Program
20.00 Commencement Talk
20.10 Introduction by Gert Gerrits of BNO
20.15 Thomas Hoogenwerf of Precious Plastic
20.45 Ing. Angela Greco
21.00 Discussion & questions
21.45 Closing program

Dinner
Before this edition of BNO Noord, you can use dinner at Resto van Harte.
Resto Van Harte is a social restaurant that serves an affordable, good and healthy three-course menu. You can pay for the dinner on the forehand in the restaurant. You must book your dinner 24 hours in advance.

Sign up
Via gert@bno.nl you can reserve a place for this evening. For BNO members, access is free. Non-members pay 5 euros. More information about this event can be found on the website of BNO.