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Trash Talks is a series of talks, panels, exhibitions and video projections focused on the waste problem. Each session will be addressing a specific problem or topic, and will be led by professionals from the specific field.

11 April 2024, 19:00 - Organic matters - The fourth edition focused on biomaterials. In this edition the talks were related to the management of organic and food materials and their applications in different contexts between science, industrial products and crafts.

19:00 - Presentation of the project and welcome by Nada Tozija from TransfoLAB BCN
19:15 - BioLaMer Proof of principle fly larvae biorefinery for biopolymer plastic production(Nada Tozija / TransfoLAB BCN, Dr. Sibu Chullanayil Padmanabhan /Trinity College Dublin)

The BioLaMer project seeks to address two significant global challenges, such as the increasing food waste challenge and petroleum plastics pollution. To achieve this  an innovative technology/design/route is developed to produce biopolymers and added-value bioplastic products from low-grade food waste.

19:45 - Woody - Sustainable biocomposites (Damian Arezzo / Woody)

Woody was born as a response to the amount of discarded wood that we see every day in the city. In Barcelona, around 4 thousand tons of wood are thrown onto the streets per year, which would be equivalent to approximately 270 thousand trees and about 12 thousand tons of CO2. The main objective of the project is to develop a biologically based biocomposite from wood waste, pruning remains and agricultural waste; that is sustainable, compostable, resistant, waterproof and recyclable.

Once a consistent material is developed, it can be used in various applications and industries.

20:15 - Biomaterials and Fashion  (Elisenda Jaquemot and Susana Jurado / Squeeze the Orange)

Squeeze The Orange Project. Susana Jurado and Elisenda Jaquemot talked about fashion design and “new materials” such as biomaterials, their trajectory, what is the current situation of this sector, what the experience of the designers is and what the future scenarios could be in relation to ecodesign in Fashion. 

20:45 - Drinks & Networking

23 November 2023, 19:15 - Well-being through design and fabrication was the third edition focused on social and inclusive projects. In this edition the talks focused on circularity, co-design and sustainable fabrication as tools to achieve social innovation within the communities.

19:15 - Presentation of the project and welcome by Nada Tozija from TransfoLAB BCN
19:30 - Trashycle / The well-being of design and circular manufacturing (Nada Tozija /TransfoLAB BCN)

Nada Tozija presented Trashycle, a project carried out by Sosped (FL), TransfoLAB (ES) and CoLab House (GR). Its goal is to explore the positive effects of circular economy and the maker movement on the mental health of youth. Through a program that combines participative methods, co-design and co-fabrication sessions, the youth in Sosped's Culture House in Tampere were able to learn and explore circularity and making. The end result are open-source guidelines that will enable other organisations to implement the developed program.

Trashycle is an Erasmus+ funded KA2 project.

20:00 - Textile upcycling as a tool of inclusion (Òscar Martínez / MakerConvent)

Oscar Martínez talked to us about one of the MakerConvent projects, with women with chronic diseases to help them learn new techniques and generate self-employment through upcycling from textiles and digital embroidery. MakerConvent is an informal learning space that offers an introduction to new digital manufacturing, digital prototyping and production tools.

20:30 - A square for everyone? (Amaia Martín / Recetas Urbanas)

A talk about a participatory project carried out during the 2022-2023 academic year in the Raval neighbourhood. Amaia Martín presented the mediation work she has carried out as a collaborator of the Recetas Urbanas studio, and will take us on a tour of the process in which they worked together with different entities and residents of the neighborhood and made questions together on what they could do with the Plaza dels Àngels and more specifically with the 900m2 where the extension of the contemporary art museum of Barcelona is planned.

21:00 - Drinks & Networking

20 April 2023, 19:00 - Textile Re-(i)nnovation was the second edition focused on textile waste. In this edition, the talks were related to the circular economy covering topics such as crafts, new technologies, the reuse of textile waste and inclusive and solidarity projects. 

19:00 - Bienvenida by Nada Tozija de TransfoLAB BCN
19:15 - Discovering the hidden colors of your waste  (Ana Laura González Sánchez /Espiritu Tierra)
Espíritu Tierra is a project that revalues ancestral techniques to obtain natural dyes with the aim of making visible the damage of the current textile industry and providing alternatives that help rethink the way in which our garments are produced. In addition, it seeks to  generate experiences that promote contact with the nature and recover the link between how the objects we consume are produced and us as consumers.
19:45 - Safe Passage Bags, From coasts to bags (Penny Papachristodoulou /PennyP)
Penny will talk about her collaboration with Safe Passage bags, a solidarity and environmental project on the island of Lesvos in Greece, offering, to both refugees and local people, job and educational opportunities. The project is based on upcycling for the manufacture of bags and accessories made of life jackets and boats that are left on the coast of the island that refugees use when they cross the Aegean Sea from Turkey.

20:15 - Wool fibers and non-traditional methods (Petra Garajová - Olane / Fab Lab Bcn)
Researching into the wool value chain and wool waste for extracting keratin for textile finishing, 3D printing or creating biomaterials using DIY tools or new technologies. Also introducing the Shemakes - Little Wool Factories as local spaces where people can process wool from industrial machines to DIY tools - from carding to spinning, weaving to knitting.

20:45 - Drinks & Networking

24 November 2022, 19:00 - Revalora tus residuos - The first edition of TrashTalks, is a night in which talks and video projection are planned focused on sustainable manufacturing, circular economy and entrepreneurship.

19:00 - Presentation of the project and welcome by Nada Tozija from TransfoLAB BCN

19:15 - Waste warehouse by Lichen

Lichen, a Social Innovation Laboratory where we design and implement open processes of citizen participation and engagement in different areas, collaborating with private and public organisations and communities, mainly in Europe and Latin America;

19:45 - Plàstic Preciós Bcn

Plàstic Preciós Bcn educates based on environmental awareness and the transformation of plastic waste. In this talk we learned about the awareness activities they we have done in Barcelona, ​​and they also presented some of the projects that their colleagues of Plàstic Preciós la Safor have in hand.

20:15 - Spin Me (stop-motion short film and presentation) by Lars and Ellie

Lars, a maker by heart and by trade, believes that bringing a community together through imagination and craft is the key to the future! They are from the UK but happily settled in Barcelona with their partner Ellie and dog Pepe.
Ellie, a 2D animator and storyboard artist who mainly focuses on creating entertaining and educating content for a young audience. She believes in the power of animation as the perfect medium to engage with children and young adults and teach them important lessons.

20:45 - Drinks & Networking

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