Why choose waste?

As a circular designer, I'm looking to dive deeper in my passion for repurposing things. For this reason, I ask myself : Why do I enjoy designing with waste as a base material? The first obvious benefit is that you get to use material that would otherwise go to waste. That means making the best out of something and that’s always wonderful. Being a true materialist is appreciating matter to the fullest and that means respecting it rather than wasting it. Reusing objects and materials around you that have lost their initial purpose is a great way of optimizing our energy. 

Second, it is accessible! Waste is all around us, from the packaging of our groceries to our shopping bags and fast fashion clothes. Waste of all sorts, shapes and sizes is all around us to repurpose. A guy carried all the things he discarded in a day, just to realize the impact of his consumption. He ended his day dressed in a suit of garbage. The point is, collecting waste is easy and becomes a free resource for designer-makers to draw from. 

Third, repurposing wasted items can translate into a great metaphor for life. Because each designer has his own philosophy and style. That style dictates who we are as creators. For me, repurposing waste successfully cheers me up. Sometimes we feel down in the dump. We feel like we hit rock bottom, but in reality, life is a cycle. Everything is in constant flux and has the potential of being revitalized. It’s not because you feel like a piece of trash one day, that a bad day will turn into a bad life. Sometimes I imagine all the cardboard boxes we throw out, and think, one day, the Frank Gehry’s of this world will collect them to make iconic chairs. The moral of the story is, when life gives you garbage, make furniture -