With growing emphasis on sustainable development each one of us should be doing our bit to save the Earth in any way possible for the future generations who may or may not be left with anything at all. Keeping that in mind, I was quite impressed to have met this whole team that has taken an oath to protect and conserve our environment through “upcycling” a term we will soon be familiar with. So let’s look at Junk Morphia’s story and how they are progressing as the protectors.
What is ‘Junk Morphia’? And let’s know a little bit about its formulation…
“MORPHIA” originated from the name of Greek God of Dreams Morpheus and coined by great Roman poet Ovid. Morphia means Form!
Junk Morphia by Design Mafia and Architecture Live! is the first of its kind International Student Design competition open to all undergraduate student community of SAARC nations. We invite students from across all academic fields with a creative bent of mind, to churn their creativity and design useful products and shelter concepts from the waste around them.
Upcycling like recycling is a waste management/ prevention method. This is the method of using waste materials as a resource present in the environment which shall cater the needs in a small but effective scale. As opposed to recycling, this needs less energy to make a product and in addition it doesn’t decrease the quality of material and rather enhances it.
The competition aims at the tremendous difference that can be made in the society by the innovative and creative ideas that will be generated through diverse participants.
The ideas and the ingenuity from our upcoming ‘socially conscious’ generation will be showcased on an international platform.
What Is Upcyling and why upcycle rather than recycle?
Upcycling is the process of converting old or discarded materials into useful and often beautiful outputs.
Recycling takes consumer materials — mostly plastic, paper, metal and glass — and breaks them down so their base materials can be remade into a new consumer product.
When you upcycle an item, you aren’t breaking down the materials. You may be refashioning it — like cutting a t-shirt into strips of yarn — but it’s still made of the same materials as when you started. Also, the upcycled item is typically better or the same quality as the original and doesn’t have embodied energy.
Future of upcycling:
Just as we mentioned, recycling stuff takes in a whole lot of working on them, processing and ultimately, a lot of energy – which has diverse effects on the environment in terms of energy consumption.
However, in some cases, like recycling metal, it is a necessary option. That is why the concept of upcycling is a more convenient option. You and I can upcycle things that we use everyday too, without any need of processing or energy usage – the only constraints being our ideas and creativity. Seen in this regard, in our current social scenario of dwindling resources we need to conserve both resources and energy. The concept of upcycling is a shining beacon for our way to a sustainable social and eco-system.
Why is it healthy for us?
The concept of upcycling is indeed healthy for us – infact healthier than recycle. The products that have been developed by the process of upcycling have zero CARBON FOOTPRINT. The next would be a great reduction in generating and processing waste, which again saves a lot of energy and reduces pollution.
If I am student then what is my responsibility towards promoting up cycle principle?
As a student, we can create a demand of a certain material in the market, we can also bring about a huge change if we use the concept of upcycling in our designs and choice of materials in our projects or day today life. And if we could include a bit of aesthetics and considerable reasons for the society to choose these upcycled materials over their natural or recycled counterparts, we can collectively bring about a huge positive change in the society over a very short time.
The brains behind Junk Morphia, in a chronological order:
The Team – (Second sub-head of FORUM)
• Shefali Nayak – Convenor
• Saajan Varanasi – Executive Director/ Marketing Head
• Yaruque Sadique – Creative Consultant/ Sponsorship Head
• Deepankar Biswas – PR/ Design Consultant
• Abhishek Gwaskoti – Visual Communication Head
• Sashank Macharla – Editor- in-chief
• Hirak Hati Baruah – Treasurer
And guess what? You too can be a part in conserving nature! Have the creativity to design an innovative technique that will help the planet in the long run?
Join them in this revolution, be creative by sending them your entries and get recognised amongst the sustainable design fraternity of the SAARC nations.