The processes of global industrialization and mounting consumerism produce so much refuse on a daily basis that recycling and upcycling have become hot topics of vital global importance. Waste, a seemingly inexhaustible resource, has become a new kind of raw material for production. Designers are beginning to take a different view of the “useless” things that people discard: bulky waste, rubbish, cheap materials―in the right hands, these become pure gold. Pure Gold: Upcycled! Upgraded! explores the subject of recycling in design and presents ideas for using refuse to create valuable products.

Working with seven curators from Europe, Latin America, North Africa and the Middle East, East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and South East Asia, Pure Gold brings together 53 designers and approximately 75 of their objects to explore value creation from garbage and scrap materials in European and non-European contexts.