During a week we reunited designers, architects, international specialists, as well as representatives of the general public at Re-Think Plastic, a plastic recycling event with educative purposes. A temporary plastic processing workshop, open to the local community and based on Precious Plastic recycling equipment (www.preciousplastic.com) was installed at Casa TIFF from Cluj-Napoca during December 3rd-9th. Re-Think Plastic which proposes new practices of plastic recycling and identifies functional solutions that can be implemented and adapted to local needs and contexts included: a collaborative project with local students and designers, workshops for children, presentations for the general public and discussions with experts during the open doors weekend.
Through Playful Art program, which aims to provide cultural education for students from schools of Cluj-Napoca, about 120 children and teachers attended to Re-Think Plastic and learned about the plastic recycling cycle by participating in creative activities designed to make them responsible for plastic recycling processes. Children could convert the plastic into long-term useful items, such as ornaments for Christmas tree.
In total, about 600 people of all ages, predominantly families with children and students, participated to Re-Think Plastic: Weekend of the Open Doors. Thus, those interested participated at the “Snowflake Academy” or “Punga de Pungi” workshops, at the results presentation of design workshop, recycling debates, along with other local actors and regional authorities active in this field. The guests of our event were: Sandor Korosfoy, Director of the Public Sanitation Service of Târgu Lăpuş, Alin Mureşan – WeRecycle, Alexandra Anghel – Someş Delivery, Carol Okos – Deputy Mayor Gilau, Laura Macovei – Let’s Do It, Romania!, Ingo Tegge – German Cultural Center and Simina Lakatos – IRCEM.
The event that is in the pilot phase has responded to the public’s need to acquire information and act appropriately on plastic recycling practices. Thus, both public and private interested actors have come up with proposals for collaboration. Future initiatives will be focused on educational activities in schools, collaborations with public administration, specific activities developed at various festivals in the city. Our focus in the future is to develop this type of programs in neighborhoods, thus stimulating micro-communities to become involved in the educational process through co-creation and active participation. In the future we want to replicate this type of event, at least 3-4 times per year, at diverse venues.
“I am glad that this pilot project managed to gather around it an enthusiastic community, eager to see it growing. I am thankful to our collaborators from Cluj Makers (Alexandru Popescu and Paul Bogdan), Prototip Studio (Ioana Ciurea and Mihai Veg), the students from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, as well as all the participants in the workshops.nIt was a week in which we learned from each other and where ideas about plastic were interchanged. I’m impatient to organize the next edition”, said Miruna Batin, Creative Director / Scientifica.
Re-Think Plastic is an event initiated by the Cluj Cultural Centre, through the Quantum program, in collaboration with Scientifica. The Quantum program seeks to address the identified need in Romania to develop an interactive science centre at European standards. Quantum proposes the development of an initial program, consisting of projects such as Re-Think Plastic which develops audiences for STEAM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics), for the creation of an interactive science centre in the next years in Cluj. QUANTUM is a STEAM centre that can appear anywhere and anytime and can be in two or more places at the same time.
