1001 Creative Ways CoronaVirus Screwed Us (Patreon)

The new year started with a new full-time team, great plans and a brand new strategy to make Precious Plastic financially sustainable. The plan was to make more pilots, collaborations and events with clients to help fund a core team of 7 paid (minimum wage) people to simultaneously execute those projects while growing Precious Plastic. 
Screwer number 1
By the beginning of Feb we had already begun a major collaboration with Rossana Orlandi to create an installation for the Salone del Mobile 2020, a big design fair attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors to Milan. This project would have already helped us cover costs up until June. After a month of great work defining the concept and starting to design, the project was brought to an alt due to the fair being postponed for covid-19, and later cancelled. 
Screwer number 2
After two months of talks, budgets and revisions we were gonna sign a significant contract with Cisco to create an interactive event recycling plastic with thousands of people as part of an event they were gonna host in summer. That got cancelled too.
Screwer number 3 and 4
Simultaneously we were working on a number of grants applications to help us cover costs and salaries. By March we were selected amongst 10 finalists for the Solve MIT Rethink Plastic Challenge Award to create a major project in South America to implement and test out the Precious Plastic Local Network. As previously mentioned, Joseph flew over to Colombia where the final award ceremony was taking place to later find out everything got cancelled while crossing the Atlantic. Double bummer as we couldn’t run for the price and a complete waste of CO2 to fly across the Atlantic (we take this very seriously). 
Screwer number 5
FAMAE (the people that awarded us the 300K€ in 2018) still had to send us 30.000€ as the final instalment from the price. That money would have gone straight to pay the electricity bill from developing Version 4 throughout 2019. Due to CoronaVirus and the related upcoming financial crises, FAMAE told us they are not able to pay us the last instalment for the time being. 

We could go on but will leave it there for now. In all this run run situation we’re ever more glad to have YOU, our Patrons, believing and supporting us through difficult and strange times like the last few months. New Patrons keep coming in and drop off are in line with monthly average (surprisingly not surging).

Much love to yha all 🥰