The ideas, people and projects we get to know through SUSPLACE encourage us to embark on other bold adventures!
You can think of The WasteLab as such an offshoot – one that has been ignited by the European Social Innovation Competition. This year’s call is entitled ‘Re:think local’ and seeks to find the most innovative projects that empower young people to participate fully in a changing economy.
So what’s The WasteLab all about?
We (Lorena and Omer) are aiming to create a microcosm together with Madrid’s youth to hack the local economy by repurposing food and tech waste into goods and services. We want The WasteLab to kick-off by co-building Madrid’s first low energy kitchen-hackerspace and food waste cafe. Giving life to a vacant building, The WasteLab will bring together innovative chefs, social entrepreneurs, local activists and academics whose workshops, pop-up sessions and experiments will showcase the endless possibilities of the waste economy.
And we intend to make all our tech, learning processes, organizational models, plans, strategies and experiences open-source.
Where are we now?
We submitted our idea and despite a harsh competition (over 700 entries submitted from 39 different countries), we’ve been selected as one of the 30 semi-finalists. This means we’re going to Cluj, Romania, for an intensive three-day training programme called the Academy. We’ll get to meet experienced social innovators and entrepreneurs who will help us turn our idea into a viable business proposition.