The “Break the Curse. Recycle.” campaign was created by five students — Andrei Pîrnog, Alexandra Georgiana Răduț, Sellin Saban, Alexandru Vlad Sălăjean and Miruna-Ioana Voican — from the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies at the University of Bucharest. They won the Student Innovation Challenge / WHAT’S NEXT?, organised by ENVIRON and the University of Bucharest.
The competition’s grand prize, offered by Ioana Chereji, Head of Communication at UNTOLD, gave the winning team the opportunity to attend UNTOLD 2026 and see their idea brought to life at the festival.
At the interactive “Break the Curse. Recycle.” installation, festivalgoers were invited to press the Magic Button and playfully discover which forgotten electronics hidden away in their drawers might have been “bringing them bad luck.”
Inspired by the world of superstitions, the messages encouraged them to symbolically break the “curse” through recycling.
Cluj residents and festivalgoers could bring small electrical waste to the collection points — symbolically named “Purification Portals” — located at the Horia Demian Sports Hall.
- “Still holding on to your high-school phones? The past keeps calling.”
- “You didn’t recycle your old blender. No wonder none of your diets work.”
UNTOLD