British people consume more than 30,000 units of beer, soft drinks and wine every minute. This creates a large amount of waste – in particular, unrecyclable lids. At the same time, within this consumer society, certain groups are marginalised due to their social and economic positions. They do not always receive the same opportunities to develop skills and experience as their peers in better-off communities. 

This handmade jewellery project aims to increase the value of this waste stream, by teaching disadvantaged groups to transform the lids into components for jewellery. First, Chanida Kanmuang created the examples shown here. Then Kanmuang ran a workshop to teach others how to do it. This workshop proved without doubt that the jewellery produced in this way was more than acceptable to exhibit and sell, through a pop-up exhibition and fair. Proceeds from the sale were donated to charity, to support the next iteration of workshops.