SEMINAR: SymbioticA Friday Seminar: Waste-for-Life

Waste-for-Life (WLF) is a loosely joined network of scientists, engineers, educators, designers, cooperatives, innovators, and documentarians that work internationally and inter-disciplinarily to develop poverty-reducing solutions to environmental and social problems. WFL works at the intersection of waste and poverty using low-threshold/low-cost technologies to add value to resources that are commonly considered harmful or of minimal worth, but are often the source of livelihood for society’s poorest members. Two WFL team members visited Buenos Aires for six months in 2007 and again in 2008 for an additional month. There, they met and worked with several cartonero or waste-picker cooperatives. This talk presents a view of these cooperatives through the lens of WFL and the potential affect the intervention may have on co-ops working within Buenos Aires vast garbage collection and recycling machinery.

Professor Caroline Baillie has recently been recruited as Chair of Engineering Education for the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics at The University of Western Australia. Caroline is particularly interested in ways in which science and engineering can help to create solutions for the environment as well as social problems. Before coming to Perth, Caroline was Chair of Engineering Education Research and Development at Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, where she was also cross appointed into Chemical Engineering, Sociology and Women's studies. Formerly she was lecturer at Imperial College, UK and the University of Sydney, as well as Deputy Director of the Materials Subject centre, part of the Learning and Teaching support network in the UK.

For more information visit: www.wasteforlife.org

All welcome.