Upcycling: how to organize an event, recycling what you have

They were the emblem of a model of consumption, even cultural, based on us and throws. Today they are becoming one of the most stimulating challenges for sustainable creativity. The so -called «big events»(Festival, conferences, weekend fashion or design, like the one just over) are based on a premise that sounds the opposite of an ecological approach. Create Effect setsable to involve many people for a limited time. On the level of sustainability this was equivalent, until recently, to a real débâcle: projects with expiry date worthy of the packaging of fresh food produced enormous quantities of waste, which to be disposed of employed vice versa.

Finally today the opposite message is starting to pass: to unhinge that paradox you have to play on its ground, the creativity. The new challenge is to be able to offer stimulating content and innovative scenography starting from recovery productsand transforming what was previously an expiry date on a date of further transformation. This is precisely the principle on which Vanity Fair has designed the whole Garden of ideas During the latest design week. More concretely: 60% of the materials for the event at the cloisters of Sant’Eustorgio were the result of the Upcycling of those used in the edition of last year. And when the set -up was dismantled, only 10% of the elements took the path of disposal: the rest was stored for a future reuse.

Yet, it clarifies immediately Marcello MorenaFounder and creative director of Milestone Production which has created both editions of the event Vanity Fairthe 2025 setting was very different from the previous one. «We have completely changed concept and form, through minimal processing. Which is precisely what distinguishes the upcycling with simple recycling, and it is also the great and most current bet: to reuse old objects to create new ones, which have greater value. That is, transform a potential refusal into a work of art, through the least possible number of passages ». The Switch, Morena continues, does it precisely creativity, which in turn in recent years is guided by growing respect for the matter itself. In this way interests of different types can be reconciled, to the advantage of everyone.

“Of course there is a speech of awareness and reduction of the environmental impact, which is in first place and is a theme on which luxury brands are also facing strong pressure by the market. Then there is an immediate reduction speech of the expense that companies must support. As Milestone we have long started to insert, in the estimates for temporary events, disposal costs. Many interlocutors at the beginning remain banned, but disposal also has an economic cost, and explicit their items in the estimate (instead of including it simply in total) helps to make the problem of environmental cost more perceptible “. Finally, he adds while in the tone of the voice he perceived the coefficient of enthusiasm, because the most stimulating appearance is touched from a creative point of view, “there are those that I call the” unused treasures “that often lie in warehouses: archival materials, components or production remains that, put in the hands of creativity experts, can enhance the communication of a company. I always say that companies should open the chests and understand that their history and their work can be told in a much more original way with the Upcycling. “

The roads then become many: from the constant reduction of waste at the end of the preparation (Milestone went from 75% of 2000 to 20% of the events that organizes today, among other things using carpet and fabrics for subsequent packaging), to the strategic choice of materials. Starting with the progressive replacement of plastic in favor of wood and metal. Marcello Morena always explains: «The latter lend themselves very well to be adapted through unpublished design. Among the creations that we brought as an example of upcycling to the garden of ideas, and that they liked them very much, I could mention the lamps built with different types of metal recovery networks, and transform them into “light filters”. Or the empty helium cylinders who became base for bedside tables. And still the cisterns of diesel, sectioned and used as the load -bearing structure of shelves that held wooden shelves, also recovery. And we also transformed a steel sphere of industrial remaining into a sun -shaped bearer, perfect for buffets ». In short, the message is clear: to the objectives of sustainable development you can, and it must also be achieved through events with a very close (but very close) expiration of the 2030 Agenda.

The many Upcycling ideas, collected by Milestone during the garden of ideas.

Francesco Andreoli