This paper is based on a fieldwork research conducted in an association based in Berlin. People working there collect used materials – i.e. rubbish – sort them out and stock them in order to distribute them for creative activities. This association turns out to be a place where a specific world-view is taught and improved. According to this world-view rubbish is perceived as a field of possibilities. This association is only one node of a dense network of alternative places and experiences growing in urban wastelands raising controversial political debates about what a city is and what kind of place it offers to its inhabitants.