A story of Trash

so since i was asked to share my story

i’m gonna ask i’m gonna start since i

was at the age of 10.

don’t worry it will only take an hour

so um let me ask you a question first

how many of you follow a sport

nobody all right oh i can see some hands

great

how many of you follow i mean you

follow the same spot since you were a

child

do i see hands i see some hands wow

great all right you should have been

speaking maybe in a different tedx team

but i have to say i was never good at

sports

their only attempt i did was when i was

10 years old

and i did it because i had the need to

belong somewhere

and there was a cycling team running in

my hometown

which i decided to join and i did join

at 10 and i tried really hard to become

a professional and for two years the

best position i got

was the second before the last so my

career ended up quite quickly

but what really fascinated me that using

a bicycle

this simple creation can take you to

places

and it wasn’t until 2013 when this idea

came to my mind again

it’s funny how some things stick to your

mind sometimes

i was living in scotland and i used to

hang out a lot

at the radio center i find that this

place

extraordinary some people didn’t needed

something so they

used to take it there and some others

find it useful

simple as that so one day i visited this

place and i found these bicycles

old bicycle frames lying around and i

had

this idea

i’m gonna build a bicycle by myself

and write it back to cyprus

and so i did people thought i was crazy

even i thought i was going mad

i was i adopted myself quite a lot and

but something inside me felt right

and made me unstoppable

so i started alone and the first thing i

learned was

how dependent we are from nature

the weather and the natural landscape

defined the root of my journey but being

a traveler as well i had to camp

everywhere i wanted to stay at night so

i find out that cities was not a livable

place

the second lesson i learned that being

alone is never fun

a month after i started janice joined

along

and three months after i studied

dimitris joined along as well

and there we collectively we

collectively learned the third lesson

that we could never have made it if we

couldn’t have the support and good will

of others

and that is true on purple you can see

the roots since um i started in scotland

ending up in cyprus

this journey lasted for four months and

coming back to cyprus was never easy

actually i tried to follow the norm

finding a job

building a career but it never felt

right

it wasn’t until 2016 when i found out

about the european union programs

of volunteering for the youth and i

found this opportunity in spain

it was an easy decision i left

everything i quit my job

and i never looked back

so i moved to spain ready to start a new

life and i had two main things

time and a bicycle

so i used to use my bicycle and traveled

to the most remote places in there

i was living and what surprised me

was that even in the most remote places

you could find human traces everywhere

mountains of waste

that was it i had to do something about

it

and it was then when i created the surah

the surah

comes from the spanish words tesoro

which means treasure

in basura which means waste

and nothing will have been possible of

course if i did not have

the support of others so we started

experimenting with the idea a lot

and a good example was this youth center

in valencia

located in roma community and

we were invited together

to work with the people living there and

transform the place

so we collected a lot of things thrown

away and

boom the place was alive again in a

week’s time another good example

was when we visited the local market and

we collected

all the food that was going to be thrown

away in a day

so we managed to feed more than 50

people possibilities were

endless my only problem

was all those things i could find and do

nothing about

so i started experimenting around it and

art installations played an important

role

but making structures out of all these

things

but again it didn’t felt like a solution

plastic was everywhere and i was running

out of ideas

so i thought it was then when i found

out about precious plastic

created by a dutch guy named dave

hawkins

and imagine what he made everything

open sourced he designed machines that

can recycle plastic

everybody could copy them he shared all

the information online

and everybody even you could create

your own small scale recycling facility

brilliant and that was when i decided

i need to come back to cyprus and follow

what i was doing to spain

back here coming to cyprus

i tried to learn a little bit what

happen in our lovely island

so i start to

find out that in order to follow

the european regulation regarding

climate change

and for cyprus to reduce our emissions

according to the green deal we will need

13

times cyprus covered in trees

i wasn’t an expert planting trees so i

try to see

what happens with our waste

so i was shocked once more to find out

that 76

of our waste ends up in landfills

and that was a call for action don’t you

think

i do believe in education and education

plays an important role

in knowing what we do learn today

so i was lucky that i was invited in

schools and i also organized some

workshops for adults

but it didn’t felt enough i wanted to

spread this information

to people that could not be exposed to

this

so i turned locally i tried to see what

happens

in the place where i was living and i

found about this organization

named idaliades it’s formed by retired

and unemployed women gathered every now

and then

and sharing their knowledge and passion

for traditional crafts so we mix our

powers together

and they came out with the idea of

creating bugs

everyday bags using old fabrics they had

at home

and advertising banners

again possibilities were endless

that is another good example the

transformation of a place located

in the old city of nicosia the old

municipal market

it was a proof showing the power of

like-minded people coming together

in few weeks time without even realizing

it

we transform the place from a gray empty

area

to a colorful vibe vibrant place open

for all

and this is where we had our first

physical workshop in cyprus

where we continue working with our

precious plastic machines

and here we are again allow me to show

you what our

precious plastic machines do the first

machine

on the on the left as you can see

shreds plastic by that it makes plastic

raw material again

the other machines can use a plastic

and transform it into everyday useful

items

to design and practical objects

but most importantly it allows us and

gives the possibility

to reimagine our lifestyle

sounds great isn’t it

well it took us four years to get to the

stage where

where we are now as time and money was

always a problem

but we are still going thanks to the

support we receive

every now and then but here we are

almost ready to create our first reuse

facility

or recycling if you prefer where we

invite and we would like to invite you

designers makers local shops

organizations authorities everybody

interested on the topic

to help us build an a network

where we can process waste and make it

into something meaningful

and we are hoping that this plastic

reuse

will only be the beginning we aim to

create a bigger facility

where different kinds of ways can be

processed

as well as collaborate with other

initiatives

where we share the same passion and we

want to achieve solutions

that tackle climate change

an idea that happens abroad but for us

a small island it can be something

where we can contribute and shape our

future

and make this story of trash a story of

treasure

this is where my bike brought me so far

so if i want to leave the stage i want

to say three last things

first will be use your bike as much as

you can

you never know where it can take you

second

whatever you do do it with respect to

nature

and fellow human beings

and last it starts from every single one

of us

sharing it with others but we can

achieve

anything if we work collectively

thank you so much