Climate change is one of the most critical issues of our time. The media, branding strategies, supermarkets, the internet; it’s a ‘hot’ topic everywhere you go. The message (climate change deniers aside): the world is as we know it is under threat and the systems in which humanity is operating in are unsustainable – from the escalating climate catastrophes to widespread inequality to the influence of big tech on our lives. We need to eat less meat, consume less, use renewable energy, fly less, donate to good causes, and at the same time we need to make money, raise our kids as well as possible, go to yoga, fill our instagram profiles with happy holiday pictures, install solar panels (if you have the money), etc.

Helping to create a better future for ourselves and this world can be quite overwhelming. Especially when your neighbours work for Shell and fill their shopping cars with chicken wings. Why then, should I cut down on my pleasures? How does an individual change huge systems? With these big questions in mind, I decided to focus on my own consumption, in particular the traces I leaves behind. For 80 days I locked up my trash bin and  I photographed each item I otherwise would have thrown away. While my apartment started to fill up and smell, I searched for ways to re-make new products from my trash. Could I create a business and sell my waste? It happened to be little more difficult than I had hoped for.

During the research I kept an instagram account as a conversation starter to share my thoughts, questions, and findings. What happens with our trash after we put it in the bin and how can we reduce our waste, so we create more circular systems ourselves? In the end I presented the research in a book and in an attempt to sell my trash I created jewellery; Trash Gems.