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What happens to the things we throw away? Kitchen scraps, disposable coffee cups, plastic bags, food packaging, batteries, cigarette butts … where do they end up?
Çöp Sohbetleri / Garbage Talks took place in Spring 2019 and was a platform to meet and exchange ideas around our relationship to waste in the city. We were brought together by the questions:
How often do you think about waste?
How do you manage your waste while living in a megacity like Istanbul?
What are your biggest questions and challenges when dealing with garbage, recycling or composting?
In answering these questions, we sought to gather ideas about how we might adapt our waste systems at NADAS to be more approachable, the role of community spaces in encouraging more sustainable behaviour around waste, and what people need to manage their waste more efficiently at home.
Gatherings, usually around food, took place monthly and ranged from a workshop-style event to a ‘compost’ pot-luck.
Garbage Talks 1 | Friday, 8 March 2019 | Our first garbage event gathered us around a potluck dinner of foods made with waste-less-ness in mind, including left-over sourdough crackers and pizzas, chocolate-dipped orange rinds, and cheese made from whey. We also invited people to bring something to share - to save a day’s waste from being thrown away and to discuss how it might be recycled, or to bring an object or idea that could help with waste reduction. Some of our most memorable objects included homemade recycled paper embedded with seeds, a wooden tool for turning toilet paper rolls into seedlings containers, and a delicious 'compost bread'. One attendee came with a delicate package of razor blades, sparking discussion about how best to dispose of them.
Garbage Talks 2 | Friday, 8 March 2019 | Our second garbage event brought together a new group of people around the central question of, “What is your relationship to waste in the city?” To begin, we invited each person to introduce themselves and any objects or questions they may have brought along. We then let the evening unfold with small and round-table conversation. The event ended with an exchange of feedback for future çöp / garbage events - which included suggestions to focus on a specific topic and knowledge exchange, and which led us to Çöp Sohbetleri III / Garbage Talks III which focused on composting.
Garbage Talks 3 | Friday, 8 March 2019 | Our third garbage event brought people together around the theme of composting. Burcu Arikan, urban farmer and mushroom grower, led the way by sharing some compost basics and guiding people to construct a vermi (worm) compost from used yogurt containers. With worms settled into their new homes, we move onto dinner - filled again with delicious and creative waste-less foods. This event marked the end of the season, with plans for more garbage events in the Fall.
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