The Dirty Game: Development of a Card Game to Promote Sustainable Waste Management

Innovation Showcase
Dan Podjed  

This presentation introduces the Dirty Game, an ethnography-based card game developed as part of the Invisible Life of Waste R&D project (2018–2022). The research on waste management took place in six cities: Ljubljana, Zagreb, Graz, Trieste, Oslo and Dubai. The development of the game was based on research findings from the cities that showed, among other things, that people are often fed up with the constant promotion of sustainable lifestyles and warnings about recycling and waste separation. In the game, the player takes on the role of a rat which joins a fictional gang and is given the opportunity to leave behind as large a pile of trash as possible. Of course, despite its seemingly non-educational nature, this game is also educational, as it allows players to see the consequences of improper waste management in their own environment. The Dirty Game attempts to highlight the importance of considering people when developing solutions to influence habits related to waste management. It does not directly demonstrate the solution to the global and local problems, but is instead aimed at establishing long-term habits related to the efficient management of waste in households, communities, organisations, workplaces, and also in public spaces.