Radical Waste

GARIMA SOOD AND DAMIEN STOnick
MENTORS: MICHELLE AUSTIN, SPUD; SARAH HAY, Slow & Steady

Radical Waste reimagines the food system by considering waste from the food industry as a resource to generate social and material resilience.

The project aims to map local waste streams in order to redirect and reformat waste as a method of reimagining our existing economic, social and political systems. Through meaningful interaction with waste material and other material and social endeavors, these systems can be restructured around local resilience, circular patterns of production and consumption, as well as reciprocity and interdependence. 

Ongoing works are grounded in material exploration and development, collaborative design exercises, social innovation and impact and  waste redirection through crafts and design. By developing a network of information flows, this project encourages dialogue with industry, business, and agriculture to support equitable and accessible food systems.

See Radical Waste Presentation (October 2020)

Garima Sood (BA) is a design researcher, a maker and a design student. Her work is grounded in material-based explorations that uses tactile engagement to foster meaningful relationships with man-made and living materials and systems. Through her work, she seeks to analyze, disrupt and push complex systems into transition towards more sustainable futures. Garima has a BA in Political Science with a focus in sustainable development policy and justice theories and is currently pursuing a BDes in Industrial Design at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.

Damien Stonick (BSE, MDes) is a material designer and researcher with an academic and personal history of supporting, growing, and developing personal and community well-being. She completed her Master’s in Design from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2020, navigating the relationship between material practice, or making, and the development of resilience, and the characterization of resilient practices within and for resilient communities. She is continuing her thesis research through redirection of waste into resources and the development of resilient practices and systems. Local design, agriculture, small scale production, and distributed systems are central components of her practice. 


The Radical Waste Project is a Satellite x DESIS project, a five-month residency in partnership with the Shumka Centre for student-led project teams to develop major sustainability and social innovation projects. Residents have access to studio space, mentorship, peer support and funding toward the goal of initiating events, programs, or community partnerships; developing products or services; or starting studios, collectives, agencies or non-profits.