Facts

Designerin: Carmen Zirngibl
Label: MCL I coffee dregs
Bereich: Upcycling Design
gegründet: 2015
Ort: Düsseldorf, Deutschland
Website: mycookerylog.wordpress.com

Kurzvorstellung

Die My Cookery Log® I coffee dregs Editionen stehen für Designprodukte aus dem, was durch das Aufbrühen von Kaffee an Abfall entsteht – dem Kaffeesatz.

Die Wohnaccessoires wie Schalen und Lampen aus Kaffeesatz – die MCL® I coffee dregs – spiegeln ein formal archaisch-organisches Design wider. Die natürlichen Braunnuancen, die durch den Kaffeesatz entstehen, gemixt mit edlen Kupfer- und Goldauflagen, lassen die Objekte in puristischer Weise wirken. Jedes Objekt ist ein Unikat, nicht nur weil das Ausgangsprodukt ein Naturprodukt ist, das sich stets in leicht unterschiedlicher Farbausprägung präsentiert, sondern auch weil jedes Objekt handgemacht ist und sich dadurch jede Form neu erfindet.

Upcycling – die Weiterentwicklung von Recycling

Recycling, das Wiederverwerten von Abfallprodukten bzw. das Herstellen von (zumeist minderwertigeren) Produkten daraus, stand gegen Ende des letzten Jahrhunderts für Nachhaltigkeit. Upcycling, die Schaffung neuer umweltfreundlicher, ästhetischer Gebrauchsgegenstände aus Abfallprodukten und damit die Schaffung von Werten bei gleichzeitiger Müllvermeidung und dem achtsamen Umgang mit Ressourcen ist im 21. Jahrhundert die logische Weiterentwicklung des Konzepts des Recyclings.

Dass man gebrauchtes Plastik, Kleidung oder Papier zu neuen Produkten veredeln kann, ist hinlänglich ausprobiert. Wie sieht das aber mit Abfall aus, der beim täglichen Kochen und Essen entsteht? Kann man auch solche, organischen Küchenabfälle nicht nur kompostieren, also recyceln, sondern möglicherweise auch upcyceln, also aufwerten und Alltagsdesign daraus machen?

Diese Frage ließ mich nicht mehr los und mündete im Frühjahr 2015 in ein konkretes Projekt mit dem Ziel, aus Kaffeesatz nachhaltige und formschöne Werkstücke herzustellen.

Konzept des Upcycling von organischem Material

Organischer Abfall, der beim Kochen und Essen entsteht, kann – auf den ersten Blick betrachtet – bestenfalls kompostiert und als Dünger verwendet werden. Dies ist ja auch die ‚Bestimmung‘ von organischem Material, nämlich, dass es vergeht und so wieder als Ressource für neues Wachstum zur Verfügung steht.

Täglich werden Massen an Kaffeesatz ‚produziert‘. Der Rohstoff dafür – die Kaffeebohne – wird unter Verbrauch von riesigen und wertvollen Ressourcen wie Wasser und Energie produziert und transportiert. Das Aufbrühen und Genießen des Kaffees ist eine Sache von Minuten. Im Kaffeesatz stecken dann noch reichlich wertvolle Inhaltsstoffe, die zur Düngung bestens geeignet sind, und dennoch: die ‚Lebensdauer‘ von Kaffee steht in keiner Relation zum Aufwand der Herstellung.

Kann man vielleicht eine funktionale ‚Zwischenstufe‘ vor dem Kompostieren für den Kaffeesatz einfügen, die neben der Aufwertung des Materials auch einem nachhaltigen und ästhetischen Anspruch genügt? Diese Überlegungen waren maßgeblich bei der Entscheidung, Kaffeesatz als Material zu nehmen, um daraus nachhaltiges Alltagsdesign zu entwerfen.

Von Anfang an war klar, dass der Kaffeesatz mit natürlichen Bindemitteln, idealerweise ebenfalls Abfallstoffen, zunächst formbar gemacht wird und anschließend mit möglichst geringem Energieaufwand verfestigt wird. Dabei sollte die Option der Kompostierbarkeit gewahrt bleiben.

MCL® l coffee dregs – Schalen und Lampen aus Kaffeesatz

Die Herausforderung bei der Umsetzung des Projekts  MCL l coffee dregs bestand zum einen darin, eine Rezeptur zur Bindung des Kaffeesatzes zu entwickeln und nachfolgend einen Prozess zur Stabilisierung und Härtung zu etablieren. Dies immer im Kontext, dass daraus Design-Objekte für den Alltag entstehen sollen.

Für mich als Biologin war das eine ganz spannende Phase des Projekts, weil sich meine Kreativität auf höchst interessante Weise mit meinem naturwissenschaftlichen Background assoziieren ließ.

Mit der MCL l coffee dregs edition N°1 habe ich im Sommer 2015 die erste Kollektion, bestehend aus verschiedensten dekorativen Schalen vorgestellt. Seit der Einführung wurde der Herstellungsprozess kontinuierlich optimiert, darüber hinaus realisierte ich einige weitere Ideen für Objekte aus Kaffeesatz.

Mit der MCL l coffee dregs edition N°2 – Lichtblicke aus Kaffeesatz wurden in diesem Sommer erstmals Lampen aus Kaffeesatz präsentiert. Die ‚Wende-Lampen‘ – der hochwertige Messingsockel kann von beiden Seiten in die Lampe geschraubt werden – verstehen sich als logische Fortsetzung des Projekts, aus organischem Material nachhaltiges Design zu entwerfen.

Sämtliche MCL l coffee dregs Objekte sind handgemachte Unikate, denn der Ausgansstoff Kaffeesatz ist ein Naturprodukt, das sich immer einzigartig verhält und unterschiedliche Farbnuancen und Oberflächenstrukturen ausbildet. Was jedoch stets bleibt, ist, dass ganz im Sinne von verantwortlichem Umgang mit Ressourcen die Werkstücke am Ende ihrer Lebensphase kompostierbar sind und somit noch einmal einer weiteren Funktion, nämlich der des Düngers zugeführt werden. Daraus kann dann wieder etwas Neues erwachsen und der Kreis schließt sich erneut – ganz im Sinne der nachhaltigen Weiterentwicklung von Recycling im 21. Jahrhundert.

Facts

Trash Up! Festival 12. + 13.11.2016

Location: Depot, Dortmund
Area: Festival for upcycling, waste prevention and resource-efficient products
Website: www.trashup-dortmund.de

Trash at its best

A hoodie out of rough material, 100% recycled and stylish – the head-turner of the Recyclist workshop. No other product can convey the ideas of the Trash Up! Festival better, which successfully debuted on 12 and 13 November 2016 in the Depot in Dortmund. This upcycling festival focused on innovative strategies for waste prevention and intelligent ways to re-use materials.

ökoRAUSCH was there as a cooperation partner – and with good reason! We want to strengthen the scene for creative event organisers who have successfully formulated inspiring goals to help transform society into an environmentally friendly and socially responsible one. I am happy to present the Trash Up! Festival here in our current special “Sustainable Design Made in NRW”.

Let’s trash

From the very beginning, you could just feel the dynamics that came into play for the Trash Up! team when they planned the upcycling festival, which was to take place in the former street car depot in the north of Dortmund: For the makers of die urbanisten and the Depot e.V. team, it wasn’t just about initiating a market for upcycling products, it was more about getting a message across: to establish upcycling as an expression of innovative strategies to deal with finite resources. Their message came across in a very refreshing way, without wagging their finger. The festival was full of power and diverse activities that invited the visitors to get involved.

As a cooperation partner, I was especially interested in what kind of audience the festival attracted and how the organisers involved the visitors in the activities. And of course as a designer it was especially important to me to get a closer look at what the exhibitors did regarding the topic of upcycling in the context of ecological and fair production.

PUBLIC APPEAL

It was really interesting to see who came to check out the Trash Up! Festival. There were, of course, visitors who were obviously part of the “alternative scene”, but there were also a remarkable number of visitors who seemed to have just got done going shopping on Dortmund’s strolling promenade. The Trash Up! Festival successfully attracted not only people who were already interested in topics such as waste prevention, recycling or resource-efficient products. Thanks to the diverse range of activities they offered – both intellectual and practical – and just the right amount of shopping opportunities, they were able to reach a large audience. The festival organisers can pride themselves on this successful mix.

FROM ACTION TO KNOWLEDGE

Something that positively stood out for me was that the Trash Up! Festival put great emphasis on a diverse and interesting programme. The many workshops, presentations and film presentations got visitors excited about the topics and ensured that everyone found an activity they enjoyed. These activities were a fun way to introduce alternatives to mass consumption and a throwaway society and, at the same time, promote awareness of the fact that it’s worth the effort to work toward societal transformations to help form an environmentally friendly, socially equitable society.

VARIETY IS KEY

I got the impression that the Trash Up! Festival brought together a lively mix of design professionals and upcyclers. For a long time now, encountered material has been inspiring designers and autodidacts alike to create new things, but sometimes they don’t always share the same approach. The more professional the approach to using valuable resources, the more carefully are creating designers products out of the left over materials of our consumer society.

When old maps are turned into buttons and skateboards are re-born as rings, the memory of the original material is especially vivid. But because the materials are pretty limited in their new form, the symbolic value is often more important than the actual use of the recycled product. The focus of this “simple dimension of upcycling” is simply the joy of giving supposed garbage another chance to become something valuable again. The one-of-a-kind character is what fascinates designers and potential customers alike. The Trash Up! Festival, however, looked for exhibitors who also had a message to convey with their products, to make people reflect on our throwaway society.

ADVANCED UPCYCLING

As a designer, I of course search for the “second dimension of upcycling”. For me, there is a difference between someone having implemented an intelligent production strategy and someone that made something primarily because they were fascinated by the original material. For example, if someone wants to go into series production with a certain product, then it is necessary to analyse the properties of the material and see if it is actually ecologically reasonable to reuse the material.

I would like to point out that now that upcycling is becoming more popular, it is more important than ever to critically think about the use and reprocessing of materials and to produce new products as intelligently as possible. If components are combined in a way that makes it impossible to dispose of them in an environmentally sound way, for example if parts are glued together so you cannot separate them or if they are coated with resin, then nothing has been gained in the name of environmentally friendly production. And if silver or other precious metals are used as the foundation for new creations but the origin of the metal cannot be proven and there is even the suspicion that they come from a mine that exploits its miners, then the well-meaning attempt is quite meaningless. And you should be critical with regards to things that can be hazardous to your health: bicycle tubes and printed circuit boards shouldn’t come into direct contact with skin, for example.

In my opinion, it is important to get experts on board who can act as consultants to producers with their scientifically proven expertise. Because, especially on a booming market, it will be more than necessary to convey this serious message with 100% environmentally friendly products.

TO SUM IT UP

It’s refreshing to see event organisers who position themselves but don’t do so in a moralising way: pointing out wrongs without catastrophizing things and instead being enthusiastic about educating people about their alternatives and how they can take action. The more than 1,800 visitors were obviously impressed by what the festival had to offer. I for one was impressed when 80 people came to hear a presentation on the possibilities and problems of upcycling and stuck around to have a lively discussion afterwards on the pros and cons. I think the Trash Up! Festival succeeded in really getting people hooked on the topic of upcycling, which can surely be attributed to the festival organisers’ authenticity and palpable involvement. Congratulations to the Trash Up! Tream on a successful premier!

THE WHO’S WHO OF TRASH UP!
Chris van der Elv Limited Edition
Pieces of the city
TEAM UP! 

hossidesign  

Der Besteckkünstler

OI by Thomas Jander

SWANE Design
Formwechsel
AnnArt  

Tribe am Leib
Circuit Accessories
Recyclist Workshop
PRESS.BAG

Tanz auf Ruinen 

Planet Upcycling
Heide Kemper
Groegl Upcycling

Frollein Fritz

Vucker skateboards

Credit, all photos: Dunja Karabaic

Merken

Profile

Adital Ela is a sustainability designer and entrepreneur incorporating indigenous knowledge into sustainable design. She dedicates her professional life to develop designs that can enable the realization of new and inviting life habits that can thoroughly reform the encounter between man, object and environment.
Founder and CEO of CRIATERRA, Sustainability design lecturer at the social-environmental design study program at the Faculty of Design at HIT, a TEDfellow.

See Adital’s TEDtalk about the first phase of the research and a visit to Adital’s studio.

I was floored. Here I was working on this project feeling I was bridging ancient history, when this knowledge was right here in my family, a single generation away!

So what’s the difference between what my grandmother did back then and what I do today? Through my company CRIATERRA, I’ve created a material, technology and production process that allow the mass production of deeply sustainable products that are literally made from dust, and will return to dust as nutrients. My very first earth stools took several days to produce — very much like my grandmother’s oven. But three years of R&D and 1,000 lab-tested material samples later, our current products are manufactured in 8 minutes!

It was a long and systematic process that required tons of determination, as the core aim of our R&D was to enhance the properties of natural resources via a chemical process to allow them to replicate what cement does. CRIATERRA’s products hold the compressive strength of concrete, yet they are 100% natural, 100% degradable and recyclable. They create 2% of the environmental impact and 0.1% of the emissions of fired clay. They are made up of 70% remains from industrial diggings, and promote zero-impact local production in a circular economy.

We’re now establishing our first industrial production line, which should be ready in 3 or 4 months. Our first collection includes furnishings and decorative products, such as tiles and side tables. We also produce Earth Pieces, ornamental bowls that are designed by the natural flow of earth using a unique process. (See video above.) But furnishings are just the beginning. I see great potential for this material in the green building industry, where it may be used to create both interior and exterior structural products.

Today, 15 years after my magical chai moment, I can easily see this journey extending for at least another 15 years. We are only starting to unveil the potential of these incredible technologies. I truly believe that the key to a deeply sustainable circular economy is by enhancing the natural capacity of ancient indigenous methods and materials with up-to-date science and technology. From dust we create, to dust we shall return.

Facts

3. Cradle to Cradle Conference 23./24.09.2016

Location: Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany
Area: Kreislaufwirtschaft
Website: www.c2c-kongress.de
Facebook: www.facebook.com/C2C.eV  , #c2ck16

3. Cradle to Cradle Conference in Lüneburg

At the end of October I went to the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Kongress nach Lüneburg.  Nach einiger Zeit Cradle to Cradle Veranstaltungsabstinenz war ich besonders gespannt darauf, wie sich die Szene weiter entwickelt hatte.

in Lüneburg with ökoRAUSCH Think Tank’s Marc and our intern Anne. Since I hadn’t been to a C2C conference for a long time, I was excited to see how the scene had developed.

For the third time already, 100 volunteers from the 36 regional groups from the C2C association helped put together the conference at the University of Lüneburg. Which is why the atmosphere at the beginning of the conference was more like that of a class reunion. So I was happy to see that the raffle was won by a cradle to cradle member, who took home a Herman Miller office chair.

The audience was very diverse: Among the 700 participants were founders of start-ups with concrete ideas and questions as well as employees from large corporations that wanted to get input that they could use to convince their CEOs to get on board. People who had never heard anything about cradle to cradle met up with utopians, sceptics and young people committed to the cause alike. They gave out gift bags at the beginning with glass bottles that you could fill up at water stations, either with carbonated or non-carbonated water as well as tap water from the water fountains made by the University of Lüneburg.

The conference even had some prominent guests. Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart took over the inauguration of the event and presented the principle his brand of circular economy with some absurd yet catchy examples: “Protect the environment, produce less waste, protect the environment, use less energy. That isn’t protection. That’s like saying: Protect your child (or your wife), hit it five times instead of ten. […] Carbon neutrality is complete nonsense. Have you every seen a carbon neutral tree? We’re dumber than trees with all of our smarts. A tree is always good for the environment, never ‘less harmful’.”
Journalist and energy expert Dr. Franz Alt led us through the programme with witty anecdotes and T.V. chef Sarah Wiener was as much of a major attraction as the great final concert put on by Bela B & Danube’s Banks, who called on the participants to support the C2C association.

Nevertheless, the content of the conference was always in the foreground. It offered a broad spectrum of topics and tried to include every relevant field. There were keynote speeches by Prof. Dr. Martin Stuchtey on circular economy and Wolfgang Grupp on TRIGEMA – one of them a scientific speech and one from the perspective of a self-professed »ordinary worker«. Following the speeches there were panels on textiles, plastic, energy and politics as well as expert discussions on building construction, product development, design and education.

Efficiency vs. effectiveness

An example that is used a lot to introduce the idea of cradle to cradle is the washing machine: One of the main differences between cradle to cradle and other sustainability concepts is that they are interested in the longevity of products and the difference between efficiency (less bad) and effectiveness (positive foot print): Is it truly effective (apart from being efficient) to build a washing machine that lasts 20 years when experience has shown that technical advancements are to be expected to come along about every 8 years that could considerably increase the energy efficiency? Why should you keep using a washing machine for 12 years when you could be using a newer model that uses a lot less energy?Warum also die letzten 12 Jahre mit einem Gerät verbringen, das mehr Energie verbraucht, als ein neues?

One of the approaches and central ideas of cradle to cradle is using instead of owning. In the end, we aren’t really interested in the plastic cover, the stainless steel drum, rubber gaskets and hoses. We are interested in washing our clothes. It’s just that within the current consumption patters we are used to owning things.

But what if the manufacturer didn’t sell washing machines, but rather “2,000 loads of laundry”. Ownership over the machine would still be held by the manufacturer – making it a leasing programme. As soon as a better machine is available, the manufacturer would exchange the machine and take back the plastic, steel and rubber and use the material as a valuable source of raw material for the next generation of washing machines, fulfilling a further cradle to cradle principle: Waste equals food. Not only that: the manufacturer himself knows best what needed improvement in the older generation of washing machines and exactly how to use the material in both basic cycles: the biosphere for material that can re-enter it safely, and the technosphere for the rest.

The great advantage: There isn’t any cross-contamination by third-party products. This is how material can be re-used in its original purity and quality in the new cycle. Furthermore, if the manufacturer knows from the beginning that he is going to get the products back, how great is the incentive then to use substances that are difficult to get rid of, meaning they do not fit into one of the two spheres?

Cradle to Cradle in Product Development

The expert discussion on product development was led by Mike Blicker and Tom Ohlendorf, research assistants at the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA)  »The cradle of cradle to cradle«. The EPEA is the institutionalised research and certification institute for cradle to cradle. Product designers can consult EPEA chemists as well as material and process specialists to find out if their product is viable for the cradle to cradle certification based on the materials used in their products, the appropriateness of the product cycle and certain specified scenarios.

According to the EPEA, their data base contains analyses of approximately 9,500 products and over 200,000 different materials. I asked whether or not parts of the data base would be made accessible to the public in the future, the answer to which was no. First of all, they have signed non-disclosure agreements with their clients, which is a completely understandable argument. Second of all, the user scenarios are too complex. For example, in one scenario, a material can be completely okay to use but in another it can be rather harmful. The latter is not easy to understand for me personally. Of course there are surely materials that apply to this case. But of these 200,000 different materials, aren’t there a few, say 10%, that could be made accessible with reference to their positive use scenarios?

During my research I found a list of all of the products and material that have been certified so far on www.c2ccertified.org. Is this the first step towards a more encompassing data base?

A young, active fashion designer from Berlin thinks the same thing. It’s not easy for young start-ups, who are the current leaders of innovation, to make their way to a cradle to cradle production concept. A start-up cannot even afford the quick scan that EPEA offers, which is the preliminary step for each certification process. Depending on how complex a product is, it could cost anywhere between 1,000 and 5,000 Euros. A young employee of a tool manufacturer had questions regarding how people can start the cradle to cradle process. He said it would be hard for him to decide which of the many components he should begin with, say for example those of a rechargeable driller. Both of the experts suggested starting with the outer casing material because it comes into direct skin contact with the user. Electronic parts are generally difficult and they said it would be complicated to include them in an appropriate circular economy any time in the near future. A young woman who had recently been to a symposium on mobile telephones suggested the following: »“For the time being, just use things as long as you possibly can. It will be a long time before the technological possibilities are advanced enough.«

Cradle to Cradle in der Politik

Personally, I found it most interesting to find out that cradle to cradle has made it into the political sphere and that people like Hiltrud Lotze, a member of the German Bundestag’s environmental committee, and Rinhold Rünker, a group leader at the Ministry for Economics of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, are leading heated discussions about correct implementation and funding opportunities for the programme. According to Lotze, politicians can only make informed, innovative decisions if they have informed themselves about possible alternatives to the current strategies – and encouraged other politicians to do so. Members of the free economy are often critical of political actors. Norbert Rethmann of the Rethmann Group, also on one of the panels, communicated this quite clearly: »They can feel free to pass new laws but we in the economy are already three years ahead of them.«

Conclusion

I found that there was a leitmotif throughout all the contributions, which was a clear call to action, calling upon manufacturers to be more responsible, along with the optimism of the idea – and of our times.

In his contribution, Wolfgang Grupp demanded that »…companies take responsibility for their decisions and put their private assets at risk« and to establish more »decency« in company management. Here, he was in agreement with Norbert Rethmann: »Manufacturers must take more responsibility for their products! If policies forced car makers to take back the cars when they were no longer needed, then the designers and engineers would completely change the way they thought! And burning garbage is just too cheap! The free market would find new recycling solutions in a heart beat if burning garbage cost 120€ instead of 60€ per ton!«

Dr. Franz Alt found his own words: »We already know a lot, but we do relatively little.«

Prof. Dr. Martin Stuchtey had optimistic things to say about the impending paradigm shift: »Today we shake our heads at what was normal yesterday.« and thinks that we are on the right path: »We always think that, in order to bring a huge change, we have to convince 100% of the population. But that’s not true. In fact you only need 10%, and in some sectors we already have 9%.«

And as is so often the case, the conference ended where it started, in this case with Prof. Dr. Henrik von Wehrden, the dean for sustainability at the University of Lüneburg: »The path to sustainability is like zen: We will never reach our goal, but if we constantly reflect on it, we can get closer and closer to it.«