Garbage Alchemists describes the life of four creative designers, architects and sculptors in Thessaloniki, Greece who formed a company called “Scoopa” and do upcycling: they dig into garbage and pick things that they transform into designer objects. The film was written and researched by George Zarkadakis and directed by Kyriakos Bouyouris for the EU project Ebits.

The challenge in this project was to reach young audiences (8-18 yo) across Europe and communicate to them issues about energy use; including alternative technologies for energy production, energy efficiency etc. The goal was to inform and increase awareness about energy issues among young people by linking to their culture and aspirations.

“Garbage Alchemists” was deemed one of the most successful short films in the project that included productions from 13 partners from 9 countries. It used two main ingredients in order to connect better with young audiences: (a) the “heroes” are young people in their 20s and early 30s, i.e. of an age that much younger students may aspire and look up to; (b) it presented a fascinating way of energy preservation called upcycling whereby garbage is transformed into designer objects.