The increasing amount of waste in cities requires not only better recycling solutions but also awareness of waste as a resource. The focus of this collaboration with Copenhagen Municipality has not only been to create new improvements for handling waste in the city, but also to engage with a neighborhood regarding potentials of waste as a resource and as an opportunity to strengthen a community.

Valby Have is part of the municipality’s efforts to discover new potentials and challenges with developing a multifunctional solution in public space. arki_lab has organized a set of workshops in the area, utilising the idea-generating board game, arki_nopoly, to gather visions and wishes from the inhabitants as to how to integrate several functions in a recycling station. Activating local knowledge and involving both young and old citizens in the idea generating and design process has been key to creating a sustainable solution; through a sense of ownership and awareness, the final outcome reflects the neighbourhood, ensuring its use and effectiveness. At the same time, it has brought the question of waste to the agenda on a local level, where inter-generational discussions have increased reflection and awareness of the implications of waste in our society.

The ideas generated by the inhabitants have been translated to seven possible solutions, forming an idea catalogue for the municipality to use in future developments. In this way, the process also reflects the long-term goals of the project, making the citizens' inputs a useful resource on a longterm scale.