As a response to this call, the following 5 designers/teams worked to undertake a thorough exploration of their chosen commercial source of waste in order to test their design responses and their feasibility. 

In 2016/2017 at the time of this project, there was no requirement by central government for businesses to record the quantities of waste they disposed to landfill. Thus this project asked designers to gain some sense of the scale and context of disposal, and explore what it might take to intercept this waste with a creative response.

Ambrosia Crum

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Dr Amabel Hunting, Diana Albarrān Gonzālez & Anke Nienhuis at AUT

Final designs:

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Designtree Collective

The Designtree Studio did an enormous quantity of in-depth research into their local Wellington area in terms of various commercial waste streams, this included working with the following organisations (& others who wished to remain anonymous): 

1. Fusion Interiors Ltd
2. Human Dynamo Ltd
3. Kadima Ltd
4. Speedy Signs Ltd
5. Meniscus
6. Water Cutting Company Ltd
7. Wellington Zoo
8. Victoria University of Wellington
9. Goldmark Group Ltd
10. RCP Ltd
11. Wellington City Council Landfill.

The following makes up part of their research:

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Clark Bardsley Design and Mitchener Architecture & Design

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Ash Holwell

 Ash continues to work on developing this significant outcome for the garnet sand.

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Print studio, Faculty of Creative Arts, Manukau Institute of Technology

This team included Albert Taala Nili and Shane Stanley Sione Vaioleti Tou'anga-he-lotu Tuihalangingie, who worked with senior lecturer, Steve Lovett at the print studio at the Faculty of Creative Arts at the Manukau Institute of Technology, Otara, Auckland. They undertook a piece of research in printing and publishing with wasted resources, and designed the format which we will use to publish the first Journal of Resourcefulness in February 2018. They worked with our designer Matthew Galloway, editor Emma Johnson, and our wonderful academic panel on this journal.

Summary:

Resource: Rise Again was an extraordinary journey with this team of extraordinary people. It was challenging and full of learning, but that seems to reflect the degree of complexity we have in our problem with commercial waste in New Zealand. The designers met the brief and put huge energy into finding design solutions to the ongoing flow of reusable resources to landfill in thousands of skips and bins everyday in NZ.

We certainly know a lot more than we knew before, and there is still a lot to learn. The learnings from this project will be consolidated in the first Journal of Resourcefulness, this is now due to be published in February 2018.

Huge thanks to Creative New Zealand and Auckland Council for making this project fly! And to all the designers for your incredible dedication and hard work, & to those that collaborated with them.

And for those curious, this is where the project name originated:

Thank you to everyone who applied, there was so much inspiration and commitment to reuse in your submissions, and I hope to work with many of you in the future if I am lucky enough. The selection process was challenging and exciting with 32 excellent submissions. Of these, 29 were from the North Island, and 3 from the South. We also had enquiries from creatives in South Africa, Poland, UK and Australia. 

Hugely grateful to the selection panel: Jonathon Hannon, Lizanne Dirkx and Dr Atiq Zaman for their expertise, time and enthusiasm.

Whāia te iti kahurangi ki te tūohu koe me he maunga teitei.
Seek the treasure you value most dearly: if you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain.