Re-thinking the neighborhood
The Lavapiés Merchants Association and ETSIDI-UPM promote Re-thinking the neighborhood (a project by graduate Sonia de Rodrigo) through PLASTIK DAY. It is an initiative around the Sustainable Development Goals in the Lavapiés neighborhood.
The Office of the Student, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Office has activated a new line of work that incorporates Service-Learning as a transversal resource in Engineering and Industrial Design studies in relation to community environments and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The project has the active participation and collaboration of the company CM Plastik in terms of awareness activities in Lavapiés, through its “Plastikeras” workshop. As well as, it constitutes the manufacturer of the products made from the waste of the neighbors.
From the Association of Merchants of Lavapiés (Madrid Association of Neighbors Merchants and Entrepreneurs District 12) promote awareness action thanks to the PLASTIK DAY initiative.
In January of last year, only in the Central District of Madrid, more than 235 tons of plastic waste were collected in a single month. PLASTIK DAY comes to reconsider this figure and turn it into a way to beautify our neighbourhood, giving a second life to plastics and filling our streets and facades with life.
Do you want to be part of this initiative? Wash and save the caps and hard containers smaller than 10 cm made of plastic (polyethylene and polypropylene), and you will receive a prize when you bring them to the collection point. Your plastics will become recycled plastic pots to create a vertical garden in a building, so Lavapiés will be filled with nature this spring.
Da un paso más allá en el reciclaje: pasa a la acción.
This project arises from the Final Degree Project in Engineering in Industrial Design and Product Development of the graduate Sonia de Rodrigo, which is part of SERVICIO LAVAPIÉS and the EELISA – INDUSTRIAL DESIGN FOR HUMAN community, and which had the support and knowledge of the ETSIDI Polymer Technology Unit, under the tutelage of Professor Almudena Ochoa and co-tutelage of Professor Oscar Santos-Sopena.
Thanks to the line of collaboration established between the university center and the Association of Neighbors, Merchants and Vendors of Lavapiés in 2020, it was possible to offer the student a framework for studying the needs of the neighborhood after the crisis caused by COVID-19 .
Re-thinking the neighborhood was born then, as a differentiating project for Lavapiés, whose main objective is the activation of the local economy through the recycling of plastics. In addition, it would culminate in the manufacture of street furniture for residents and businesses, made from their own waste. It consists of two main stages:
- Dynamization between neighbors and businesses in the area. It consists of a waste collection activity where people come together, get to know each other and learn about current waste management in Spain. Those people who would like to collaborate will be given gifts. In this context and line of action, the Lavapiés Merchants Association promotes PLASTIK DAY and the “Plastikeras” will participate in one of the sessions.
- Reward. Pots for shops and neighbors. Citizens will be able to see their efforts rewarded by receiving common enjoyment furniture made with their own waste. This project ends with the delivery of pots for businesses and for the balconies of the residents of a building in the Lavapiés neighborhood.
Therefore, Re-thinking the neighborhood is a project that, as its name suggests, proposes to rethink the way we interact and consume, as well as improving people’s quality of life, when they are surrounded by vegetation. In addition, it boosts the local economy and promotes environmental education through recycling and teamwork. In this way, speaking positively about Lavapiés
SERVICIO LAVAPIÉS integrates, through Learning and Service (ApS) projects, sustainability, citizen participation and collaborative work between the university community and the students with the neighborhood of the Lavapiés and Embajadores neighborhoods from the perspective of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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ETSIDI-UPM is the Higher Technical School of Engineering and Industrial Design and offers university education within the field of Engineering and Industrial Design. Since 1956 it has its headquarters between the neighborhoods of Lavapiés/Embajadores.
CONTACT:
Òscar O. Santos-Sopena | emprendimiento.etsidi@upm.es
Telephone: 910 67 74 00
