Photo by Merel Claes / EDC.

I have spent the last two days graphic recording Zero Waste by Design workshops organised by the Eco Design Centre (EDC). It was an intense and interesting experience as instead of my usual marker bonanza I prepared a small visual library of stickers. Together with Eoin from EDC we went through ideas and issues that might arise and given the short length of the workshop we realised the stickers would help rapid visualisation. This meant I needed to familiarise myself better with life cycle thinking and ideas around waste – actually very interesting when you get right to it.

The four workshops covered four industries: transport, product manufacturing, textiles and design and were organised by EDC in conjunction with the Welsh Government’s Towards Zero Waste strategy. There were many inspiring speakers: Eoin Bailey from EDC championing life cycle thinking and innovation; Luke Palmer, a designer from Orangebox, showcasing innovative products and processes to ensure product recyclability and Cheryl Kindness of Camira Fabrics talking about the naturally flame retardant properties of nettle. My favourite part was the design challenge set by Richard from Cylch exploring a way to set up an infrastructure for waste collection and direct waste for reuse rather than recycling or going to landfill. There were some great ideas bouncing in the groups.

See below for a sped up shoot of me working on the textile industry session (credits go to Merel from EDC):

auralab recording textiles workshop from Ecodesign Centre on Vimeo.