BRIC is a new recycling process that transforms earthenware waste into a 75% recycled composite material. At the end of the transformation process, unsold tableware from recycling centers and solidarity organizations becomes a recycled material, as strong as concrete, allowing the creation of objects, furniture and surfaces. The BRIC process is the lever for new models of circular economy and partnerships on a local scale.
Local
France
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It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
2021-12-05
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Faubourg 132 Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Léa Last name of representative: Barbier Gender: Female Nationality: France Function: Artist designer Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Faubourg 132 EPSM Lille Metropole Batiment 31104 rue du Général Leclerc Town: Armentières Postal code: 59280 Country: France Direct Tel:+33 6 03 50 45 46 E-mail:membres@faubourg132.fr Website:https://www.faubourg132.fr
BRIC is a material made up of 80% unsold earthenware and crockery extracted from the burying cycle. BRIC is as strong as concrete and can be used to make objects, tiles and surfaces for the public.
BRIC is a sustainable, transferable and circular economy process that gives citizens an alternative to classic production and consumption patterns.
BRIC has three main objectives:
- To reduce the production of waste by offering a second life to waste earthenware, which is currently problematic because it has no way of being recycled and is generally buried.
- To enhance the value of the people involved in the production of the BRIC material by learning and passing on a new craft skill. The BRIC process is open to people in integration or professional retraining.
- To experiment with and spread local craft production within social and solidarity-based economy organisations. The objective is to create a real circular economy by revalorising their own existing resources.
REVALORISATION
RECYCLED MATERIAL
SOCIAL INCLUSION
CIRCULAR ECONOMY
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
BRIC is a material made of 80% of waste: unsold or broken crockery.
We invented this new recycled material during a research residency (supported by the Castel Coucou art space and the Grand Est Region) within the Emmaüs Forbach solidarity organisation. Between 2014 and 2017, after investigations and analyses, we identified crockery as problematic waste.
Meetings with Emmaus France and national recycling centres confirmed that earthenware and crockery is problematic because it is not recycled or recovered and is buried.
This is why we have made crockery our research subject.
BRIC project takes part in the dynamics of local, national, European and global actions and alternatives contributing to the ecological transition, to the reduction and revalorisation of waste, to the development of the circular economy as well as to the creation of projects supporting integration and the learning of people's know-how through work.
BRIC is a recycling process for the production of objects, tiles and surfaces for the general public. At the end of the process, BRIC is a liquid material that we form using moulding and casting techniques.
Since 2017, we experiment and identify possible applications and destinations for the material:
- in the domestic space:
Objects, facings, decorative slabs, floor materials and surfaces, wall materials, etc.
- in outdoor areas:
Street furniture, slabs, decorative slabs, breeze blocks, etc.
During the experimental phases, we have created moulds from reused materials that we recover from the solidarity organisations and recycling centres where the broken crockery and earthenware comes from. These moulds allow us to simply make items such as slabs, breeze blocks, decorative facings, everyday objects, etc.
BRIC can be formed in earthenware moulds which will then be broken, crushed and injected into the BRIC production and recycling circuit, thus allowing complete circularity.
The various samples of BRIC material and the objects we have made show a richness of aesthetic possibilities (shapes, textures, surfaces, colours).
The faience is not hidden but revealed. The objects created with BRIC material show the patterns, shine and colours of the fragments of earthenware, thus highlighting its aesthetic characteristics.
BRIC project allows social and solidarity organisations to access a solution for the revalorisation of unsold or broken earthenware. This circular process brings economic and social added value.
By accompanying the teams in these structures, we propose to them to initiate and take part in the project and to enrich it with their field expertise and their experience. By integrating the development of the project, they acquire new skills.
During the creation of some products made of BRIC material, we want to enhance the sensitivity and skills of each participant and offer a place for appropriation. The BRIC material can be moulded in non-standard moulds, chosen by the contributors.
We imagine the distribution and commercialisation of BRIC objects to a very large public. It is important to spread and offer this alternative which allows the public to consume more reasonably and sustainably.
Transmission and diffusion to the citizens are essential and already exist in different forms:
- community volunteering project to make BRIC material
- exhibitions and conferences
- sales of limited editions
BRIC features three main impacts:
- Social: Thanks to BRIC, we are aiming to develop work camps for people who are undergoing vocational retraining, are in a precarious situation or are far from employment. The sector could support personal and professional remobilisation.
- Economic: Because BRIC makes it possible to envisage a local and responsible artisanal production within the territories, the creation of a new model of circular economy by the revalorization of the earthenware and crockery waste.
- Ecological: Thanks to BRIC, waste becomes a new non-extractivist resource and allows the creation of a manufacturing material and leads to a significant reduction of waste.
Between 2014 and 2017, we set up a multitude of exchange sessions with the Emmaus teams, in different ways - presentation of our ideas with the team, exhibition and public presentation of the BRIC project at the end of the residency - which allowed us to stimulate debates and discussions. As a result, the project was adjusted and consolidated.
During the creation of the project, it was essential to fully integrate citizens during the research and investigation phases. Through collective reflection days, experimentation in workshops, sale of limited editions and performances, we relied on their expertise and their views to move the project forward.
The feedback and views of citizens have enabled the project to reach a universal dimension in its accessibility, its aesthetics and its approach.
This circular economy sector gives citizens the opportunity to access a new mode of production of objects, sustainable and responsible, allowing the reduction of waste. BRIC contributes to the global objectives of sustainable development.
Currently, BRIC is made in a craft way but we imagine a global development within local and reasoned factories. This is why we are currently building new partnerships in the Hauts-de-France region.
During the three-year residency, four entities contributed to the project at different levels:
- The artists and designers collective Faubourg 132 (us) was involved in the creation of the project through research, conception, experimentation, and realization phases.
- An art space called Castel Coucou which initiated and supported the creative residency.
- A solidarity organization expert in the dynamics of recycling and valorization of the waste of the private individuals who welcomed us during our various investigation steps
- The Région Grand Est financed the creation residency.
During the residency, in a constant exchange with the Emmaus companions - who are experts of places and objects that inhabit it - we tested forms of earthenware transformation, we imagined protocols, presented our ideas and adjusted them over the course of the exchanges.
They have played a fundamental role in identifying earthenware as a problematic waste and in the development of a simple and transmissible protocol.
In 2015, we invited three actors from the field of mechanical engineering to take part in the research to crush and sieve the crockery.
These exchanges have helped the project progress significantly, so we would like to continue this type of collaboration. We would like to confirm the use of the material in the fields of urban planning and architecture.
From 2021, we have organised regional meetings with solidarity organisations. These structures accumulate a considerable quantity of unsold or broken crockery that we recover to produce and develop ranges of BRIC objects.
Motivated by the desire to disseminate the project to different audiences - design professionals, circular economy professionals, associations, citizens - since 2018, we have presented BRIC in exhibitions and publications on a national and international scale.
BRIC is a transdisciplinary and global project that activates knowledges, skills and disciplines and mobilises local and national stakeholders in the visual arts, design, engineering, social integration and the circular economy.
Since 2013, the research residency has given us access to a fertile ground to lead a research and creation residency around revalorisation.
Throughout the residency period - from 2014 to 2017 - we collaborated with the various Emmaus Forbach stakeholders (administrative, technical, companions). This collaboration favoured the investigation step.
By exchanging with them during their activities or in workshops that we organised, together we were able to make progress in identifying Emmaus' needs, particularly the non-recycled and problematic waste that needed to be addressed.
Part of 2016 was devoted to the development of solutions for crushing and sieving earthenware waste in collaboration with the engineering school, Emmaus Forbach's technical manager and a teacher in mechanics and digital manufacturing. These three actors worked together to prototype machines for crushing and sieving crockery.
In order to develop the project's social inclusion issues, we met with stakeholders from the sector in the two project areas (Grand Est Region, Région Hauts-de-France). The Emmaus teams provided their expertise in developing social integration projects and setting up recycling channels. An expert in circular economy and design shared with us and helped us to apply for research grants and support.
Each of the project's implementation phases was carried out simultaneously.
The plurality of actors who have been involved in the development of BRIC allowed the project to become a reality, making BRIC a solid project facing the current societal, ecological and economic challenges.
BRIC responds to the three axes of sustainable development: social, through the valorisation and transmission of know-how, environmental, through the design of a revalorisation protocol to limit landfill and incineration, and economic, through the long-term aim of a circular economy sector.
We imagine the distribution and marketing of BRIC objects to a very large public.
It is crucial to offer this alternative to the public, who will thus have access to the possibility of consuming in a reasoned and responsible way.
The BRIC project contributes to the objective of reducing waste by offering a second life to earthenware and crockery waste, before landfill, which was the only way out until now.
The first beneficiaries of the project are the actors in the development of the recycling sector who often pay to get rid of the waste.
The BRIC project offers an alternative way to recycle this unsold material and to generate a circular economy. This process thus provides economic and social added value.
The workers involved in the workcamps will be able to take part in the project and feed it with their field expertise and experience. By integrating the development of the project, they also acquire new skills.
As far as we know, there is no earthenware and crockery recycling process similar to the BRIC project.
However, BRIC responds to contemporary issues and is in line with many projects that meet the objectives of sustainable development, ecological transition and the circular economy, in the fields of design, the social and solidarity economy and industry.
The particularity of the Bric project resides in the waste that it aims to recycle: earthenware and crockery. At present, this waste is rarely sorted and mostly ends up in the landfill.
In the best of cases, earthenware ends up in a second life of little value, as it is used as backfill under roads during road construction.
The BRIC project aims at a valorising revalorisation process. The earthenware and crockery is not hidden but revealed. The objects created with the BRIC material reveal the patterns, shine and colours of the earthenware, thus highlighting its aesthetic characteristics.
Bric is part of the dynamics of local, national, European and global actions and alternatives that contribute to the ecological transition, to the recycling of waste, and to the creation of projects that promote the integration of people through work.
Here are the stages of its creation:
- Research and creation residency
- Creation and development of processes for the revalorisation of broken or unsold crockery and earthenware
Presentation of the results of the research: BRIC, a material made up of 80% of waste from unsold or broken crockery.
After the creation of the material, we wanted to develop and disseminate it,
from 2017 to today:
- experimentation of the BRIC process in our workshop with waste dishes collected in solidarity organisations and recycling centres
- production and public sale of limited editions of BRIC objects
- workshops with the public to pass on the BRIC recycling process
- exhibitions and publications about the project in order to disseminate it and give it visibility.
Since 2021, we believe that BRIC must grow, to be accessible to a wider public, to more territories and actors of sustainable development.
In order to spread the BRIC project, we have identified various actions:
meeting partners
- seeking financial support and partners
- signing agreements with partners to recycle their waste dishes
- experimentation of the Bric chain on a scale of 1
- applying for grants and development aid
We need to spread the word about the project, to show that a solution to landfill of crockery waste is possible. This exposure will help to give a broader dimension to the project, towards new territories and audiences. Because we are sure that the New European Bauhaus Project will be a success, we are pleased to submit BRIC for the New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023.
We need to spread the word about the project, to show that a solution to landfill of crockery waste is possible.
This exposure will help to give a broader dimension to the project, towards new territories and audiences.
Because we are sure that the New European Bauhaus scheme can help us to spread BRIC in different territories, we are pleased to submit BRIC to the New Europeaopean Bauhaus Prizes 2023.
Each component of the BRIC process - the process and related know-how, the products made, the methodology - can be passed on by Faubourg 132 and transferred to other actors, participants and consumers.
Currently, BRIC objects are made and distributed locally, 100km around our workshop (Armentières). However, we would like to give access to these products to a larger public and thus a wider scale through local BRIC factories.
The feedback we have received has been very encouraging.
Broken and unsold earthenware is buried and does not need to be.
Following this ambition of deployment, we envisage new means of development, transmission and spreading of the project:
- public presentations (exhibitions, conferences, symposiums, etc.). This is a first step towards the spread and development of this recycling process.
- participatory work sites in which the public experiences. This can also involve training courses in which people can learn the protocol and related know-how.
- meetings with new stakeholders in the circular economy and recycling (recycling centres, waste disposal centres, solidarity organisations, etc.). The identification of these stakeholders is central to the spin-off process.
- experimentation of a local BRIC factory, on the national or cross-border territory, in collaboration with a recycling centre or a solidarity organisation, with the support of national public players for the ecological transition.
- creation of an ecosystem for the revalorisation of earthenware waste by creating partnerships between several structures for the collection of this waste (several resource centres or groups of resource centres present on a territory for example).
Offering a second life to earthenware and crockery waste, the BRIC project has different aims:
- to build a viable recycling sector, a local recovery scheme allowing the creation of employment and the recycling of waste, in a circular economy approach.
- to develop and support the recovery actions already in place at national, European and international levels.
- to recover problematic waste and thus offer an alternative to burying it. Each year, the tonnage of unsold tableware is significant.
BRIC aims at a recycling process that adds value. The crushed tableware is not hidden but revealed. The objects created with BRIC material reveal the patterns, shine and colors of the earthenware and thus highlight the aesthetic characteristics of the resource.
By challenging the prejudice against waste, BRIC makes waste the essential component of a sustainable and circular way of consumption and production.
