Waste, and the problem with it.

Is there such thing as waste? and if there is, how are we dealing with it?

Is waste, waste or do we just not know how to use and re-use materials?

We are living in a society that is focused on consuming, but what we consume can most of the times be re-used. To understand the way of recycling and (re-)using materials, we must get to know our materials. Plastic has been inseparably linked to waste, but if we would understand plastic better as the materials it is, wouldn't we be able to reduce the waste it creates?

"Waste is something for people who don’t know the material"

Future build - Speakers at the Waste hub.

Future build

Couple of months ago, I visited this very interesting conference in London, named Future Build. At the waste hub it got much clearer that waste goes further than only plastic. It's actually the construction site that produces the most debris. As an architecture student this concerned me and made me think about what I as an architect can do to reduce the waste problem.

Biohm - Isolation material

How can we fix this?

The building industry is slowly taking steps to recycle there materials at the construction site. But we can do more! One of the speakers was Jasper Brommet, founder of StoneCycling. He's designing bricks made out of demolished and mixed waste. Another interesting way to take matters against debris, is the solution of Christian Van Maaren. The Co-Founder of Excess Materials Exchange gives waste stream an identity. By doing so we can see where and how much waste factory and other parties produces to create a waste market. Using Biological materials, like mycelium (mushroom based) isolation, can also help. It creates a closed loop system.

But don't forget, there is a lot more we can do as architects to help the building industry recycle and reduce. Cause remember; One mans waste is another mans impute/resource. Therefore we should learn about the properties of materials itself. Think about it.