From Waste to Worth: Can Everyday Things Become Something Valuable?

This is a free, hands-on drop-in workshop where members of the public can explore how everyday objects and low-cost or reclaimed materials can be turned into something useful, meaningful, artistic or potentially enterprising.

Participants will be invited to choose from a range of materials and take part in a guided creative activity. They might create a small object, artwork, gift idea, display piece, prototype or early business/community idea. The activity will be supported by simple prompts such as: What makes something valuable? Who decides what is waste? Could this object be useful, beautiful, meaningful, sellable or socially beneficial?

The event will run as a flexible drop-in session, so participants can join for a shorter period rather than staying for the full day. All materials will be provided, and no previous experience of business, art, sustainability or social science is needed.

The event explores how people think about waste, money, value and creativity during the cost-of-living crisis. When money is tight, individuals and communities often rethink what they buy, keep, reuse, repair, make or throw away. This workshop uses everyday materials as a starting point for wider conversations about resourcefulness, sustainability and opportunity.

The event draws on social science ideas around entrepreneurship, inclusion and value creation, but presents them in a practical and accessible way. Rather than telling people how to start a business, it invites participants to reflect on how value is created and who gets to be seen as entrepreneurial.

Participants will be able to make something, share their own experiences of saving, reusing and adapting, and contribute to a shared conversation about waste, cost-of-living pressures and everyday creativity.

The event will be led by Dr Sukanya Ayatakshi-Endow, Principal Academic in Entrepreneurship at Bournemouth University Business School. Her work focuses on inclusive entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education and sustainability, with particular interest in how people and communities on the margins create value, opportunity and resilience in resource-constrained contexts. Her research explores entrepreneurship among underrepresented groups, including women, ethnic minority and migrant entrepreneurs, and how enterprise can be made more accessible, inclusive and socially meaningful.

The event is open to local members of the public in Poole and the wider Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole area.

No prior knowledge is needed.

The event is particularly suitable for adults, families, community members, makers, creative people, and anyone interested in saving money, reducing waste, sustainability, upcycling, creativity or small-scale enterprise.

This is a drop-in event and and it is not neccessary to book in advance, however attendees are encourged to register to help the organisers with event planning.