During our first visit to Sri Lanka in Spring 2015, we spent most of our time in and out of manufacturing facilities, traveling back and forth between our partner university campuses in Colombo and Jaffna, and in meetings to consolidate relationships with and between...
Many months ago we alluded to an upcoming project in Sri Lanka. At the time, we thought we would be partnering with Dilmah Conservation, the human and environmental services arm of Dilmah Tea Company, http://www.dilmahconservation.org/. We had been speaking with...
We’re here in Buenos Aires, August and September 2014, after an absence of nearly 4 years. This will be an unusually short trip for us, but the brevity belies its importance, which is one of inquiry and discovery. Though we have tried to maintain contact with our...
We’ve been quiet on these pages (though not on the ground) for many months. Cooperativa Nueva Mente continues to manufacture and sell products with the hotpress and now conducts weekly training sessions for a youth group led by a local ceramics teacher. We keep...
We’ve previously written about the fragility of recycling cooperatives, always on the cusp of economic insolvency because of equipment breakdowns, or fires, or market fluctuations in the price of recyclables, or family illnesses, even sabotage – and the...
This is the number of households in Morón, the Buenos Aires suburb, from which members of cooperativa Nueva Mente collect the weekly rubbish that they then separate, sort, and sell to recycling middlemen. Until about 1 month ago this figure described a daily routine,...
Erica Lee, engineer and WFL project manager in Buenos Aires for 5 1/2 months during 2010-2011, has written a wonderful article reflecting upon the experience for the Ontario Centre for Engineering and Public Policy. As a volunteer project manager for educational...
While the Nueva Mente/Contenido Prensado group in Buenos Aires have been investigating new markets and designs for their trashbins – including domestic and industrial indoor models – Sarah Seitz, at Queens University, has been experimenting with building...
The last post pictured a ‘final prototype’ of the trashbins that the youth group at Cooperativa Nueva Menta are producing for the Municipality of Moròn. Clients being what they are, the design has been modified, and these are the actual bins being readied...
The final bin prototype (before a final coat of paint) commissioned by the Municipality of Moròn from Cooperativa Nueva Mente. 50 bins to be used around the new Reserva Natural de Municipio de Moròn. A formidable achievement indeed.
