Do Fest Experiment #2: Zero Waste conversations and making
Doers and makers in Dudley are great at making use of or bringing new life to unwanted and discarded stuff. This year we’d been noticing an increase in conversations about going plastic free or zero waste. Do Fest 2019 was a great opportunity to begin the process of convening people with this shared interest, experiences to share and questions to explore.
People want to take action but they need help, guidance.
(Do Fest Detectorist)
As mentioned in yesterday’s post, Do Fest experiments were small scale actions connected to bigger ideas around changing what it feels like to live, work and play in Dudley town centre. Among other things, we wanted to create spaces and reasons for interaction and connection between strangers, and make good use of the many and varied natural resources and talents which already exist around us. Zero Waste conversations led by local and visiting doers were a response to this, and a way to surface opportunities to grow activities or projects around plastic free or zero waste living
Going Plastic Free
Colab Dudley Collective member Rick, a maker, artist and poet from Stourbridge is being supported by UnLtd to start a social enterprise in Dudley which helps plastic waste to be repurposed into beautiful, useful things. Rick invited his friend Nicky to share her family’s journey to getting 90% plastic free in their home, followed by a visit to the workshop at gather where he has set up plastic shredding equipment so that the plastic can be made into other products.
Nicky shared all sorts of simple tips and alternatives to plastic products, as well as local knowledge on where to buy things. Doers involved were keen to come together to try things like making beeswax food wraps. Nick Booth captured Nicky’s top three tips in this video.
Zero Waste Life
On day 2 of Do Fest, Charlotte from Zero Waste Life, a blog and not-for-profit, hosted a conversation about taking steps towards zero waste. Doers quickly got talking about easy changes they had made and what they struggled with.
Refuse. Recycle. Reuse. Reduce. Rot. = Planet Saved!!!
(Doer and Do Fest Detectorist)
Charlotte has free guides that people can download, and recently shared her journey at TEDxWolverhampton (a big shout out to our Fellow Travellers Saffi Price and Sam Axtell for catalysing TEDxWolverhampton).
Picnic Blankets for Life
Dudley’s crafters are the people to look to for inspiration on upcycling and re-using resources. Jane Clarke designed an inventive solution to a potential need for picnic blankets and carrying food to the Do Fest Musical Picnic, and soon had lots of doers cutting and stitching as they made customised blanket-bags from unwanted materials and bags for life.
Picnic blanket making in particular felt like a gift.
(Doer and Do Fest Detectorist)
Look out for more about our Do Fest experiments over the next few days, and what we’ve learned through these intentionally connected small scale actions.
Related posts:
- using festival signals to inform Do Fest 2019 design
- Do Fest Experiment #1: A parklet
- Do Fest Experiment #3: Doing in Dudley Market with Do Fest Friends
- Do Fest Experiment #4: Imaginative ideas from other places
- Do Fest Experiment #5: Invitations to make art on the High Street
- Do Fest Experiment #6: Paint Dudley sign writing
- Do Fest Experiment #7: Animating the Inhedge
- Do Fest Experiment #8: Detectorist lanyards
- ‘Many Hands, Many Ideas, Many Experiments’ — Learning note from DO FEST 2019
