stoff ♻ wert – Jakob Wirth

2022 -2023. Conceptual work in the public space. Berlin. GER
Collaboration with Marina Resende and Hannes Brunner.

Realisation in the context of re:publica and the Kunstverein Rosa Luxemburg Platz, Berlin.

#negativeprice #stoffwert #circulareconomy #recycling

CONTEXT: After reading that the NDR (a German newspaper) uncovered landfills with German plastic in Poland in 2022. We researched and came across illegal landfills, in Brandenburg. On one of these sites, we came across full halls with thousands of cubic meters of pressed plastic. The waste originally comes from Hamburg, which has no interest in taking back the waste it produces. The existence of these illegal landfills is a real snub to society, since German citizens already pay recycling fees of 0.97 cents whenever they buy products. However, in this case, this never led to a recycling process.

With „stoff♲wert“, we brought several cubic meters of the pressed plastic back to Berlin to display it publicly in squares, at trade fairs and flea markets, thus bringing it back into the legal recycling cycle. The plastic is offered at a negative price, i.e. the customer receives 0,97 cent per acquired kilogram of plastic waste and promises to throw it back into the yellow garbage can and thus send it back into the so-called recycling economy.

The stoff♻wert project conceptually closes the value (material) cycle that is normally interrupted by the dumping of plastic in landfills. Under the slogan: „Give it a 2nd chance“, plastic from an illegal landfill in Brandenburg, Germany can be purchased at the stoff♻wert market stall at a negative price and thus find its way back into the recycling loop.
The project thereby provocatively comments on the largely non-transparent economy of recyclable material and all those involved in it – producers, the state, consumers, transport and recycling companies.

The market stall will be opened again and we’ll keep on trying to dissolve these illegal landfills.. Stay tuned. We will need all Berlin*innen to get rid of the 1000 kg of garbage. This is just the first drop to break them up.

Further information: stoffxwert.com