~ Upcycling Meets High Fashion

Elvis & Kresse are two social entrepreneurs who have been reclaiming heroic materials ever since they first fell in love with London Fire Brigade’s decommissioned fire-hoses. After a distinguished career fighting fires the hoses were destined for landfill. They started to rescue it from waste in 2005 and never looked back. More materials soon followed, Kresse has always had an obsession with waste and likes nothing better than discovering and intercepting something new. The challenge is the same every time – ‘what can we do to prove value, change perception, and respect these resources.’ ‘We dream of a time without landfill, when everything is recycled or composted. Between now and then we know there are far too many incredible materials that will either languish under ground or suffer the indignity of incineration; when that happens we lose, we lose quality, narrative, and the opportunity to do something great. So we intercede, choosing story laden materials of incredible character, and do everything we can to ensure their second life is as long as possible.’ ‘We are constantly searching for more materials to grow our range of bags, belts and wallets, and have rescued over 200 tonnes so far.’ ‘Design traditionally begins with an idea, for Elvis & Kresse, design begins with a problem. It is the material and the scale of the problem which dictate what we will make and how we make it. In the case of the hose, we scrubbed away the soot and grease that builds up after 25 years of active duty and discovered a truly remarkable, truly green textile. We wanted to honour this tough, life saving material, hence our focus on quality craftsmanship and classic, timeless design. We build value into each piece and style them for use beyond single seasons. All Elvis & Kresse products are hand-made and unique.’ It would never be enough to give an old fire hose a somewhat useful life, we must transform it, make it desirable or useful in and of itself; something you would want even if it were not recycled, even without the ethics. E&K spent five years perfecting a billfold wallet - ensuring malleability, strength, and classic, practical styling. This same dedication is applied to everything we do, from how we collect and prepare our materials to how we finish and package the pieces. Our process emulates kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. The refurbished pieces are worth significantly more than their new, undamaged counterparts. Our materials are shown this same level of care, they are cherished. Most traditional businesses are only able to measure their success in one way... the bottom line. At Elvis & Kresse we have 2 additional measures of success; how much waste we are able to divert from landfill and how much money we are able to give back to our charities, of which all 3 have equal importance to us. Elvis & Kresse re-distributes up to 50% of profits to projects and charities related to the unique materials we reclaim. www.elvisandkresse.com

~ Two Bike Projects In Devon

There are two community bike reuse projects currently happening in Exeter. Both the ‘Bike Bank’ and ‘Ride On’ aim to get more people cycling and provide affordable bikes. ‘Ride On’ charity offer basic bike maintenance sessions to help people develop skills and confidence. We also offer free rider confidence coaching, group rides with qualified ride leaders, and we sell reconditioned bikes. All our bikes are fully serviced, cleaned and ready to ride away. Our knowledgeable team can offer advice and guidance to make sure you choose the right bike for your needs. Come and visit us at our workshop here on the historic quayside in Exeter. We welcome volunteers from administration to fund raising or preparing our reconditioned bikes. Or can you donate a bike. Ride On workshop opens each Thursday 2pm to 8pm & each Saturday 11am to 5pm. Regular courses are held at Ride On, 61 Haven Rd, Exeter, Devon EX2 8DP, UK. See www.rideoncycling.org. Contact Adam on 07762 237916

Exeter Bike Bank project is a supportive workshop environment where vulnerable adults can learn practical skills in refurbishing bikes for the benefit of others, becoming trainee bike mechanics. They offer refurbished bikes to people on low incomes using a voucher system similar to that used by Food Banks. It’s a project of Exeter Community Initiatives. ‘We are currently open for two days a week in a shop in the Harlequins Centre and working on securing additional funds to enable us to operate for longer.’ The running of the project is supported by volunteer mechanics who mentor others to learn how to refurbish bikes. We also have salvaged bike parts that can be re-used for home repairs or for creative and technical projects. We will be offering drop in sessions where people can bring in their own bikes and learn some basic skills to help maintain them. www.facebook.com/BikeBankDevon, or contact Andy Richardson on: 07527 363938 or email: bikebank@eci.org.uk

~ New reuse, repair and upcycling project for Devon!

The Devon Reuse project aims to promote and stimulate more reuse, repair and upcycling in the community, in small businesses, charities and social enterprise, and will run throughout 2015. The project will establish a Reuse Forum, an online Reuse and Repair Directory, provide workshops and practical skills training events, and make community reuse kits available for loan to people wanting to host events such as clothes swaps and ‘give and take days’. Emma Croft is the new Devon reuse project officer, now based at DCC, and she has experience of running reuse and repair events in Wiltshire alongside other waste prevention initiatives, while working at the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust who ran community waste programmes for the Council. Emma said: “‘I’m excited by the potential of this project to reduce waste and increase the amount of goods and materials that are reused and repaired. The first series of bike repair events has already been organised in Exeter at Pinbrook Recycling Centre.” (Please see other article for workshop details and dates) Work will include identifying and establishing a network of people, small businesses and organisations in Devon interested or active in reusing, repairing, re-making, or re-purposing any item, as part of the Reuse Forum. The Forum will enable people to network, share know-how, and explore potential partnerships. Are you an individual maker who needs specific materials or do you have an idea for a reuse enterprise but need some help? Are you interested in ‘repair cafes’? Are you a business that has reusable materials in your waste that you would like to see reused? Are you a charity or social enterprise that could benefit from marketing and promotion, or anything strategic? Do you want to revive jumble sales in your area? There will be different interest groups with different goals, but it is hoped that all interests can derive benefit in one way or another. The online reuse/repair directory will enable the public to easily find and connect with useful contacts, such as repair services, in their locality. Reuse enterprises, upcyclers and repairers will be able to market their services through inclusion in the directory. Do you know a repair enterprise that should be included? If so, please send us the contact details. The online reuse directory will be based on the market town areas of Devon. Different reuse and repair initiatives will be broken down into 6 categories: buy, sell, repair, hire, donate, and swap. The workshops and skills training events will hopefully inspire people to undertake more ‘reuse, repair, and New reuse, repair and upcycling project for Devon! upcycling’ in their lifestyles, and the whole project aims to act as a catalyst for stimulating higher levels of reuse in the community. Training sessions will include furniture, bike repair, creative clothing, transform your textiles, and repair cafes for more general items. 12 skills based workshops will be held, initially at Pinbrook Recycling Centre in Exeter, and also elsewhere in the community. Community Reuse kits will be available on loan to enable clothes swaps events and ‘give and take days’ to happen more easily. Clothes swap kits will include mirrors, clothes rails, sack truck, hangers, screens for changing, and guidance notes. Give and take event kits will include press release and poster templates, weighing scales to record items, table labels, signs, and other items. There are lots of ideas being discussed, such as organising a ‘Devon Reuse Week’ to promote reuse. How can we identify businesses with suitable resources in their waste and connect them with makers who want those resources? Do small makers/repairers need help with a premises hub, or to kickstart their idea, or an online selling platform for their creations? The project is being funded by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme), Devon County Council and supported by DCRN and Sita, who run Devon’s Recycling Centres. If you want to be included in any way please get in touch, either as an individual, business, community group, charity or social enterprise, whether as part of the reuse/repair directory, the forum network, or are just interested in any of the training events, either participating or offering skills. Please contact Emma Croft via email: emma.croft@devon.gov.uk or phone 07966 566435, or join the free DCRN email list for regular email info about local events and news. Richard Gomme at info@dcrn.org.uk

~ Pop up ‘give and take’ reuse shop for Crediton

The community group Sustainable Crediton have run a completely free, give and take reuse pop up shop in Crediton High St during February. Charles Mossman of the waste action group said “our Pop Up Give and Take Shop …was hard work but a phenomenal success with over 7,700 people coming through our doors in the 14 days we were open and over 7,000kg of household items finding good new homes!! Many people have asked us when we will be doing it again but for now we are taking a break and going back to our normal lives which have been very much put on hold for the past two weeks. However, it won’t be long before we pop up again with a new or related project!! Watch this space.” ‘People could bring unwanted household items including toys, clothes, garden equipment, kitchen equipment, household linens, ornaments, and furnishings, books, CD’s and DVD’s. For big items such as beds, tables, wardrobes etc. people were asked to bring a description/picture plus contact details. These were displayed on a special board in the shop. As predicted, there really was something for everyone. The only items not acceptable were paint and household chemicals, opened toiletries, baby car seats and old style computer equipment and TV’s.’ Paula Mossman of the Waste Action Group explained how it works.’ People can take away up to 5 items completely free, they don’t have to bring anything, but we hope people will take the opportunity of clearing out unwanted items at home. We anticipate that fresh goods will be arriving daily, so there will be new items on display regularly to browse through. Our group has been working on waste related issues in the town for over 7 years now and our regular waste plastics collections have become very popular. Our main aim with this is to keep the perfectly re-usable goods that many people have at home, but no longer need, out of landfill. One person’s junk is often another person’s treasure and so we hope as many people as possible will pop into the shop regularly throughout the fortnight.’ Follow Sustainable Crediton at www.facebook.com/ groups/27626965377/ or see the website www.sustainablecrediton.org.uk

~ Upcycling, Recycling & Useful links

This article focuses on reuse and upcycling, and illustrates lots of examples happening around the country, reflecting the great re-skilling, inspiration, enterprise and lifestyle changes required to reduce waste; from repair cafes to workspace provision, from high-end upcycling fashion to everyday reuse. I am pleased to report that upcycling is thriving all over the world, often in places one would not expect, as innovative artists, designers, crafts people and enthusiasts redefine the consumer throwaway age; and of course those in developing countries have been upcycling for years since ‘waste’ first originated.

Now Devon has its own Reuse Project to run during 2015 to stimulate reuse and upcycling around the county with workshops and skill sharing events on upcycling furniture, bike repair, creative clothing, and transform your textiles, with repair cafes also to be held for general repair and electrical items. There will be community reuse event kits for loan to make hosting events easier, and a reuse forum set up to network individuals, small businesses, and others involved in reuse.  I have selected different working examples from around the country which may be of interest. There is also the website www.repaircafe.org full of tips to help people set up their own events. I am amazed by the ingenuity and creativity, there are a lot of inspiring upcycling photos from around the world on Pinterest. I have assembled an upcycling selection at www.pinterest. com/richardgomme. Some that standout out for me are large scale public space sculptures, such as the tin can street pavilion in Israel, the plastic bottle Christmas tree in Lithuania made from 40,000 waste bottles that lights up and is 30ft tall, the plastic bottle giant fish on the beach in Rio, Brazil, the Russian pensioners building décor made from thousands of plastic bottle tops. There is Katie Thomson in South Africa, at www.recreate.za.net. For an online shop featuring upcycled handmade items see www.etsy.com. www.upcyclethat.com is a natty website full of upcycling ideas and inspiration, some of which are 25 looking for kickstarter funding on www.kickstarter.com. If you have a worthy enterprise that needs funding to get it going do consider kickstarter. Other innovative uses include top end fashion belts, bags and other items made from old fire brigade firehoses by Elvis and Kresse, www.elvisandkresse. com. There are flip flop shoe soles from car tyre treads, see www.tireflops.com. Volunteer groups and social enterprises are innovating with upcycling and repair too, such as Tivertons’ Repair café. www.facebook.com/ tivertonrepaircafe. Refurnish Devon’s ReStore is at Dartington Shops, which is hosting regular drop-in Repair Cafes on the last Saturday of each month from 10.00am- 1.30pm, starting 31st January. The shop has a range of restored and recreated items for sale. www.facebook.com/ ReStoreDartington. Exeter’s‘The Bike Bank’ bike repair and training project includes re-skilling disadvantaged people in bike repair and refurbishment, providing bikes for low income people. www.facebook. com/BikeBankDevon. ‘Out of the Dark’ is in High Wycombe, it restores and revamps salvaged furniture as a means to train, educate and employ young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and steer them away from crime, with an ethos of being an extended family. www.outofthedark.org.uk The ‘Goldfinger Factory’ in West London is an up-cycling production and learning hub for the training, support and inspiration of London’s most disadvantaged residents to create desirable furnishings and fit-outs for London’s trendsetters with a social conscience. www.goldfingerfactory.com ‘The Remakery’ is a new project in London to provide affordable workspace, tools and access to reclaimed materials destined for landfill for makers to reuse. The aim is for Remakers – local residents, makers, artists and businesses – to reuse materials to create products, enterprises, jobs and opportunities and develop new skills. Any profit is used to subsidise the Remakery social programmes and help those at a disadvantage in the community. www.remakery.org ‘The Restart’ project encourages and empowers people to use their electronics for longer, by sharing repair and maintenance skills. The project helps people learn to repair their own electronics in community events and in workplaces. www.therestartproject.org   For community events the Repair Café Foundation says: “Really the most important thing is to have a team of dependable and enthusiastic volunteers who are willing to give up their free time and offer their skills and tools to help others learn how to repair their things. If you have that, your repair cafe will soon grow. It is a fun, social way to combat the general frustration with wasted materials, resources and a loss of skills… it’s a community, a space for empowerment and the site of transformation where people’s relationships with their things shift from consumer to owner.”

Richard Gomme