AM500218

Creating value from waste

Is the stuff we throw out worth anything?

We generate millions of tonnes of rubbish, garbage, waste (call it what you like) every day. Poor waste management has negative environmental, economic, and social effects that impact on all our lives. We can’t eliminate all waste, but we can minimise it by finding new ways to use and repurpose old things, designing sustainable processes and systems that help to reduce waste, and changing the way in which we understand consumption and waste. This village encourages you to explore all or any of these aspects as a way of creating economic and social value.

Relevant competence

This village crosses national, cultural, and disciplinary boundaries and is for anyone who has every thrown anything away but wondered if this stuff could have a new life. Whatever academic background you come from, you can make a meaningful contribution to a team project. We need input from engineers, philosophers, economists, businesspeople, artists, scientists and all kinds of other thinkers and doers. It should also appeal to you if you are interested in cross-cultural approaches to solving a global problem.

About the village 

As part of this village, you will have the opportunity to listen and speak to experts in sustainable solutions from the public and private sectors in Norway who are implementing innovative solutions in waste management. This will help you develop your own ideas, skills and competencies as part of an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural team, and you will use these to contribute to partners’ current projects. We have new projects every year, but in 2026, teams worked with a diverse range of partners: reimagining unused space with Ålesund municipality; tackling textile waste with Sykkelven municipality and Plusslab; exploring critical raw materials from industrial waste with Attvin waste management; investigating secondary raw materials with Sirk Norge; developing the business potential of wastewater with NTNU; and mapping marine plastics with Plastapol.

Assessment

In this village, the final work consists of an oral presentation of the project and a written process report, which count for 50% each. All EiT villages have the same assessment criteria, which can be found in the document "Formal framework in Experts in Teamwork - a guide for students and teaching staff".