Saturday, June 12, 2010

Hungary for upcycling!

It turns out upcycling in multilingual! I recently returned from a trip to Hungary where I helped teach about 700 Hungarians how to make products from manufacturing waste. And it was fun! The trip was arranged through TerraCycle for one of our brand partners. We showed them how to transform their European manufacturing waste into new things like wallets, gift bows, beaded jewelry, gift bags, and more.

Despite having a fabulous full-time translator, I was a little anxious about the whole language barrier. But once the first session was in full swing, I was showing participants how to fold, punch and twist waste packaging wrapper like old pros - no language required. It wasn't just a good lesson in sustainability - it was also a great lesson in explainability. Sometimes actions are much more effective than words.

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