After having completed the acclaimed Whole House Reuse project in 2015, Rekindle is now launching their new major project Resource: Rise Again, which focuses on the high volume of reusable resources that are currently wasted when sent to landfill.

In New Zealand over the last 25 years, the volume of waste has increased by 73 per cent. We send over 2.5 million tonnes of waste to landfill every year, with another estimated 6.5 million tonnes of waste being dumped outside of levied landfills. 

In response to this problem Rekindle’s founder Juliet Arnott says, “I understand that it’s easier to overlook the tonnes of waste going to landfill every day in New Zealand, because it is a hugely overwhelming problem. Our work at Rekindle is about trying to find to a way to value resources so that they are seen as being too good to throw away.”

The Resource: Rise Again project will fund and support five designers or design teams across New Zealand, between April and October 2016, to research and design new solutions for resources that businesses currently pay to dispose of in landfill. This is the first time in New Zealand that a research and design program has been established specifically to address waste through reuse solutions. 

Rekindle is a social enterprise where profits are dedicated to furthering development of creative work that has impact on waste and resourcefulness. Resource: Rise Again is funded by Creative New Zealand and involves an expectation of high-quality creative outcomes. The large new body of research and design solutions will be exhibited in Christchurch in October 2016, and Auckland at Objectspace in 2017. 

Rekindle is now calling for designers to submit their interest in the project; the deadline for submissions is 11 March 2016. 

Also as part of this project, a journal that explores pertinent issues related to waste is being published. As no one individual or single field of understanding is yet to effectively address the myriad of issues involved with waste, Rekindle is calling out for original, thought-provoking submissions (both written and visual) from a wide range of contributors. The deadline for journal submissions is 29 April 2016.

Wellington launch event details:

• Tuesday 1 March. Drinks from 5.30pm, 6pm start
• The Pit, Te Ara Hihiko (Block 12), Massey University College of Creative Arts Wellington

Auckland launch event details:

• Tuesday 8 March. Drinks from 5.30pm, 6pm start
• Level 3 exhibition studio, School of Architecture and Planning, 26 Symonds Street, Building 421, University of Auckland

More details on the Resource: Rise Again project are available here.