The final presentations of the students work in Berlin went really well and there were several outstanding ideas.
There were three runners up and they included a Materials Resource that a group of product students want to develop for the college. They currently find it very hard to get their hands on any materials such as wood or metal to make prototypes. This project would be a website and a physical resource that sources waste materials from the various workshops and manufacturers around Berlin. They had already approached several companies who are willing to donate their waste materials. We thought this was a great solution to two problems - the lack of materials that students often face and the excess of materials that currently go into land fill. Pure joined up thinking!
The winners were Vincent, Michael and Peter who created 'Kick Butts', a new product and marketing campaign to stop smoking. They would collect the millions of cigarette butts that currently pollute our streets (they are the second biggest waste stream in the sea after plastic) and create a new materials from this waste . This would be used to make a type of bin that can then be used to collect the butts - like those ashtray bins you see near where people smoke. They also designed a very funny poster campaign to encourage people to think about their smoking habits.
We are hoping to be able to make it back to Berlin to see the final work from the students in July.