Zerowaste Conference pin design 2019, upcycled glossy acrylic plastic detail, combined with gold plated metals & gold hot stamp.

“Save Nature, Save Future” was the motto of this years 2nd edition of Kosovo Sustainable Development Week 2019, something that we can all relate to...now more than ever! 

KSDW, a week-long Conference, brings together panels and activities recruiting representatives from civil society sector, institutions, academia, green initiatives from Kosovo, the region and abroad to discuss the current state of developments with a major focus on environment protection, waste management and circular economy. Most importantly the Conference and its organizers, provide space for the local community to participate in events and open discussions with stakeholders, so to push forward inclusive approaches for projecting a sustainable future for all.

The comforts that we find in our everyday life are mainly provided without ethical standards towards our surroundings, which then end up in different levels as social consequences, known also as waste by the current system. We should be urged to re-discuss the artificial nature of the global type of economic growth, design thinking and most importantly the consumerist mentality. Based on Science Advances Journal: “8300 million metric tons (Mt) as of virgin plastics have been produced to date[2017]. As of 2015, approximately 6300 Mt of plastic waste had been generated, around 9% of which had been recycled, 12% was incinerated, and 79% was accumulated in landfills or the natural environment. If current production and waste management trends continue, roughly 12,000 Mt of plastic waste will be in landfills or in the natural environment by 2050.”

For the collaboration with KSDW 2019, we all found it as an important momentum to carefully add a message to the Conference Pin, in order to create space for the discussion of plastic waste and waste in general. What we collect [plastic waste] comes in different colors and shapes, and the random pieces in itself remind us of “waste”. We used these pieces as they are by combining them with Gold embedding of the Conference Motto: which added to the whole meaning the conventional perception of treasure. Thus, uniting in a single piece the duality and conceptual transition of waste to gold, what we devalue to value or what we dislike to like, from a traditional point of view. Nevertheless nothing like the traditional, these Pins are crafted with zero waste principles - so no trash has been sent to landfills, incinerators, or the ocean.

We believe that reinventing the meaning of waste through collective debates and playing with it through design gives us interesting possibilities and new topics for brainstorming. Symbolically let this brooch represent to us, our collective shortcomings as well as our advantages as humankind to be able to adapt fast and easy but only after we’ve redefined our values for a unified future.

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© DYVÓ