What we do?
Many of the young people we work with live in extremely challenging conditions. Using only locally available discarded materials we help these children create a degree of health, food and water security. So for example, if flies and mosquitoes present a significant health risk we make fy and mosquito traps from plastic bottles. If nutrition is inadequate we grow plants hydroponically in water and nutrient efficient bottle gardens. Clean water can be produced using plastic bottle solar stills or UV sterilisation methods. We are working on developing activated charcoal filtration.
We don't provide optimised solutions to these problems, instead, we equip our students with the tools they need in order to find their own solutions. We are respectful of indigenous knowledge and only systematise it using design thinking and scientific literacy.
Rubbish Science aims are greater than simply improving the independence and quality of lives of our students. We are creating a global network of connected problem solvers in some of the richest and poorest communities in the World.
Why we do it?
Lives can be transformed using items that are freely available and considered as rubbish. We aim to change the paradigm, to see rubbish as a resource. To unlock latent talents to systematically create and develop new ideas that can make life better.
Having taught in many areas of the World I have been struck by how incredibly similar we are. Irrespective of race, religion, level of privilege or other perceived differences, that which seperates us is almost insignificant compared to what binds us together.
Politicians in many countries often try and create a fear of other nationalities. Rubbish Science aims to do the opposite. All students carry out the same activities with the same equipment. Often those with the hardest lives outperform those with the most privileged. We aim to create empathy in these wealthy students, not guilt and an understanding that really only circumstances, not talent separate them from the poorest.
