Eco Social Designer, as he defines himself, has the special ability to bring beauty even from industrial waste. A highly topical issue in times of sustainability and circular economy. His first exhibition was at Superstudio 13, in 2012. Seats talking about a different way of thinking about the waste of our civilization.

Tell me about your choice to become an eco-social designer or a "waste designer" ahead of time.
It was 2008 and I was working as a permanent designer for a packaging company, but, after 5 years, I felt that the company reality was too tight and I needed to "speak with my voice". I was already very fascinated and intrigued by the plastic and glassy waste that resulted in the production process and I remember that I collected them to study and reinterpret them. Soon I realized that, in addition to making works with the waste materials that I found, I could draw on much more material by helping companies to recycle. Each of my creations gradually became a hand in ecology, to which I quickly joined the active participation of social associations...

Eco Social Designer, as he defines himself, has the special ability to bring beauty even from industrial waste. A highly topical issue in times of sustainability and circular economy. His first exhibition was at Superstudio 13, in 2012. Seats talking about a different way of thinking about the waste of our civilization.

Tell me about your choice to become an eco-social designer or a "waste designer" ahead of time.
It was 2008 and I was working as a permanent designer for a packaging company, but, after 5 years, I felt that the company reality was too tight and I needed to "speak with my voice". I was already very fascinated and intrigued by the plastic and glassy waste that resulted in the production process and I remember that I collected them to study and reinterpret them. Soon I realized that, in addition to making works with the waste materials that I found, I could draw on much more material by helping companies to recycle. Each of my creations gradually became a hand in ecology, to which I quickly joined the active participation of social associations. In this way, all my work would become a 360 º aid: ecological and social. I could not find a suitable term to explain the plurality of my work in 2009 I created the professional figure of eco-social designer.

What goal did you set?
First of all to translate any waste that had occurred to me into a new design product or work of art. The result had to be innovative, surprising and sophisticated, effectively clearing the idea that only a less valuable product can come from waste.

Today the theme of recycling and circular economy is very topical. What is your contribution?
My contribution is to create from waste a project that manages to synergistically collaborate no longer with a single company with social associations (children with disabilities, prisoners, schools, etc.), but orchestrate ecosinergies that can include an increasing number of players, such as happened with Levi Strauss, where I involved 300 shops and social associations, or as I did for the recycling of marble in Tuscany, involving more than 80 companies.

You needed collaboration with companies and attentive interlocutors. Did you find open or closed doors?
Unfortunately, as with any new job, the biggest difficulty has always been to get the message across: open your company to me, present me your waste and, analyzing the waste that "is popular", I will study how to translate it into a design product, in a media operation, in an artistic work etc. To my surprise, even the most important ones were not yet sensitive to the idea that their waste could be a resource. Many feared that I wanted to meet them for industrial espionage.

The presentation at Superstudio 13, in 2012, combined awareness of the recovery of industrial waste with an aesthetic and poetic look that brought design closer to art. Do you feel more like a designer, artist, social experimenter or what?
It’s always been my dream to become a designer, when they started calling me so, I felt very proud, but I must say that in reality, when I managed to no longer be ashamed to really show what a creative answer was for me, when I started not worry that my works might seem crazy (imagine the asphalt chair), then I realized that I had never actually been a real designer, product designers are much more technical. As for the experimenter... Well, they asked me even if I was an engineer or a chemist, because from the scrap in these years I have developed two material patents. Well my answer was that I am neither, I am simply very curious. In short, with my research I try to surprise myself every time, without repeating something already seen, in order to arrive at a maniacal study of waste, as well as to imagine the creation of everything that has not yet been done with that particular waste material.

Today, after that first time at Superstudio, how far have you come on your journey?
I will never forget the exhibition at Superstudio 13, it was in fact my first personal show where I had the courage to exhibit my most rational part, but especially the most conceptual. Today the intuition I showed at Superstudio has become a current affair. Everyone today understands the importance of working for a cleaner world and that we must exploit the resources we have already produced. Today I’m exhibited in museums, I can boast collaborations with important companies and multinationals, I have two patents active and have won awards. Never as on earth today  the new usable resource is the waste.