not just useless
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
It was influenced by the straw-littered streets of Bairro Alto (in Portugal), the project aims to create an environmentally friendly mindset addressing a seemingly trivial, yet troubling phenomenon. The idea is to collect used straws from consumers at dedicated locations and institutions and let designers create new objects, installations and textures from them. The design then returns to the location, offering consumers a chance to see their not-so-useless waste transform into use again.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
NOTJUSTUSELESS works best as a collaboration between designers, institutions and consumers. Through something as simple as a straw, the initiative fosters a thoroughly cocreative design process. As an institution you give space to the containers labeled with a QR code and help collect the straws. As a consumer you have a strong impact on how the project progresses. You contribute by using the containers and donating the straws you used. By scanning the QR code you are able to follow the progress of the project throughout. As designers, we make sure that your used straws get a second life. Ideally, our creation can be showcased where all contributors can engage with it again. Together. The results can take many different forms depending on the context of the collaboration and the materials donated.
• Are you a designer? Contact us to collaborate and suggest your idea.
• Are you an institution? Contact us to see how you can raise awareness and provide collection spots for the containers.
• Are you a consumer? Donate your straw, follow the design process and engage with the results.
Key objectives for sustainability
Most of the materials are 100% Polypropylene (PP), therefore recyclable in the end of their life span.
Some samples are a mix including materials like cork/polyethylene/cotton/jute/synthetic textile.
Most of them are 100% Polypropylene (PP), therefore recyclable in the end of their life span.
Some samples are a mix including materials like cork/polyethylene/cotton/jute/synthetic textile. (Material description stickers are attached to the samples.)
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The main components of the material are used, plastic straws amassed by collector boxes - designed for this purpose with QR code on them that leads to the page of the project, allowing people to follow the whole design process. Therefore, the result of ‘notjustuseless’ is not only a recycled, waterproof material, but also builds awareness and makes recycling more real and closer to the consumer society by encouraging people to follow and interact with the process. The collector boxes are located in common cafes or restaurants, where a lot of drinking straws
are discarded. When full the box is removed, with the straws being washed and organized by color. After being heat processed, everything is possible while using the resulting colorful strips of flat plastic to design objects or materials from them.
Key objectives for inclusion
Considering the interactive component, the most straightforward use is for creating designs such as interior decorative textiles - curtains, room dividers, table cloths or lamps - in the cafe or restaurant where the straws were collected, so these can be enjoyed by the contributing
establishment and customers, while also raising awareness. Other than this use, there are other functional and technical uses for the resulting plastic strips, such as to bind fabrics and replacing sewing in seams. You can use them to form the corner of a bag, in the edge of a coat or pocket. Even making buttonless closing systems or other clothing details. A completely different use for them was in a recent project, where some colorful bookmarks were made from straws. Each is branded with several hashtags that tell a bit of the
story, including #bairroalto (place of origin of the straws) #drinkingstraw #recycled and #notjustuseless.
Innovative character
This design venture plays with the concept of recycling as we know it, bringing it back in a new, refreshing way. Its approach works by changing this dated, old-fashioned concept through interactively inviting the audience into the designing process, opening a door into a modern perspective and consciousness. Consumers have the largest impact on how the project progresses and form the final design with a simple act, by not throwing away their used drinking straws, but putting them in nearby containers designed for this purpose. A QR code - located on the collecting boxes - navigates to the page of the project, allowing you to follow the whole process. The designs’ concept shifts and adapts with the change of colors and shapes of the collected straws, resulting in one more level of depth and interactivity with you, the public.
The title of the project aims to show us its’ nuances and double meaning. The words „not just use less” refer to not just using LESS, but at the same time, as you use up new straws, invite you to be reflective and take responsibility into your own hands, when facing the waste from your normal life’s material consumption. It does this by stating that used materials are not just USELESS, since every kind of wasted materials can be functional and live again in another form.
This culminates in a call for action with you ultimately having the chance to enjoy the result of your work in the form of a progressive, daring design, in the place where you drink through the next straw, feeling a new, lighter conscience.
