“When I lived in the Netherlands, even when you work on a project that you hope fixes something, like plastic recycling, at the end of the day you go to a supermarket to buy something, like a banana, shipped from Columbia. Then you sleep in a house that’s built from concrete, then you take a car somewhere, then there’s the roads, the lights that are always on, just to keep that Dutch system going. Or not necessarily a Dutch system, a western system. They leave big footprints, way more than people in other countries in the world. So I felt very much like, ‘Damn you are trying to fix problems, but you are here part of the problem by living here in this world.’ How can we structure life that you can still work on these things, but you don’t make a mess somewhere else.”

Dave Hakkens is an award winning and disruptive designer from the Netherlands. Graduating and launching two projects, Phone Bloks and Precious Plastic in 2013, he continued to develop open-source projects that address global environmental problems. Dave is a maverick in his field, and continues to learn and develop the skills to build communities around interconnected problems, in the hope for a better world.

Listen to Dan and Dave discuss:

- The journey from a design graduate to an army of change makers

- Phone Blocks: A modular phone design where parts, not the whole device, can be upgraded

- Precious Plastic: Open-source plastic recycling machines for all

- Evolving team, community, funding and awards for Precious Plastic

- One Army: Interconnected communities that solve global problems

- Developing skills in how to build a community around a problem

- Project Kamp: Prototyping a way of living that’s least wasteful

- Observing land to see what she and the community needs

- Full time van life; is it cheating?

- Intentional living and our interdependence with the natural world

- Power of the internet, simplicity and playfulness to communicate with the world

- Fixing Fashion: Using the power of fashion to dictate what is cool, especially repaired clothes.

- Building software to help build effective communities

- It’s time to serve the environment on Spaceship Earth

Community and Links

Projects:
Fixing Fashion - https://fixing.fashion
One Army - https://www.onearmy.earth
Precious Plastic - https://preciousplastic.com
Phone Bloks: https://www.onearmy.earth//project/phonebloks

Places:
Netherlands
Portugal

Connect:
https://www.instagram.com/davehakkens/

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Play out track:
Glimmer in the Dark by Trilucid & Esque
https://www.beatport.com/track/glimmer-in-the-dark-extended-mix/14389742

Thanks for listening to The Spaceship Earth Podcast.

Host: Dan Burgess @dansolo__
Edit: Charlie Shread
Shownotes: Vicki Turner
Music: Escape Goat by Soren Lorenson
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Episode 48 - Dave Hakkens - Designing our way out of this mess