The association Recup is running a creative workshop that gives children the opportunity to paint with colours obtained from fruit and vegetable scraps.
Federica Canaparo, head of workshops at Recup – a Milan-based association that fights food waste and social exclusion –, tells us how the idea came about for a creative workshop aimed at raising awareness among children and adults alike about the use of fruit and vegetable scraps. What some see as waste, others can regard as a valuable resource, and the workshop invites reflection on precisely this: did you know that, starting from scraps, you can obtain natural colours similar to watercolours?
How did the idea for the workshop come about?
The idea for the workshop grew out of an exam at the Academy of Fine Arts. The brief was to design a creative workshop to address a problem in our society. This was in 2015, right in the middle of Expo. I thought that one pressing and still-relevant problem was the waste of resources and our relationship with them. From there I asked myself whether something could be done with what is normally considered waste: in Recup's case, discarded food is recovered and donated to anyone who wants to fight food waste. But then I wondered — what about the waste of the waste?
How are colours obtained from scraps?
The process varies from colour to colour, ranging from boiling to cold extraction to drying. One example is onion skin, which, when boiled, turns the cooking water ochre yellow; or coffee grounds, which, left to soak in water, release their brown. The main materials used to obtain the colours are vegetable scraps that are no longer edible.
What are the aims of the workshop?
The objective of the workshop is to raise awareness among children and adults about the issue of food waste. The idea is to encourage participants to reflect on the unconventional use of materials. The workshop has participants paint with natural colours that can be replicated at home. The colours are held in jars previously used for sauces and jams, while the brushes — taking the concept of the unconventional to its extreme — are small wooden sticks that have fallen from trees. Every material is intended to prompt reflection and unsettle notions of "convenience". Colours, for example, are something we are used to buying in tubes, produced industrially. Among our goals is the concept of doing it yourself: thinking creatively and ecologically.
How do children react when they see fruit and vegetable scraps turn into colours?
Children react with wonder and amazement, especially when they realise they have to paint with wooden sticks; many cannot believe it is possible that cabbage releases blue and that bicarbonate of soda magically turns it pink. Transformation is our key word for conveying a meaningful message and ethical, sustainable values. Participants are involved in the creative activity in order to have an educational and rewarding experience. That is precisely the point of the workshop: giving new life and value to what surrounds us through a different perspective.
"Although the workshops have been temporarily suspended due to the current situation, Recup has never stopped, especially during the lockdown," says Lorenzo Di Stasi, the association's communications manager and spokesperson. "From the end of March to the end of July, in coordination with the Municipality of Milan and the Milano aiuta project, we moved our operational base to the Ortomercato di Milano, the largest wholesale fruit and vegetable market in Italy; together with other local organisations such as Emergency, we redistributed fruit and vegetables to around 4,500 families. Across all our activities in 2020, of which 17 were with the Ortomercato and the remainder with city markets, we collected 25 tonnes of fruit and vegetables."
"Today Recup has 125 members, a number that has doubled in the last year alone," adds Di Stasi. "It was one of the effects of the pandemic: the crisis brought a number of pre-existing problems to the surface, and many people wanted to get involved and lend a hand to those most in need."
Taking part in individual collection days is straightforward: it can even be done occasionally, depending on your availability, by contacting the association or going directly to the collection points at neighbourhood markets. So why wait?