Friday, November 28, 2014

Team Limerick Clean Up has designs on a greener Christmas

Team Limerick Clean Up with the help of students from the Fashion Department of Limerick College of Further Education (LCFE) have the upcoming festive season all sewn up through their participation in an innovative upcycling project taking place in the Hunt Museum next Saturday (6th December) from 12.30pm to 4.00pm.

The students are partnering with Team Limerick Clean Up to transform jumpers owned by members of the public into Christmas jumpers in an effort to re-use some of the estimated 1 million tonnes of textiles thrown away annually from domestic sources.

Team Limerick Clean Up will be in the Red Door Gallery on the following Saturday (13th December) from 12.30pm to 4.00pm with Rainbow Upcycling and Newcastle West Tidy Towns.

“This workshop will demonstrate how to cleverly transform something you already have using fabrics, plastics and other materials that are segregated for recycling,” explained Noel Earlie of the JP McManus Benevolent fund.

He continued: "We all love to feel festive and Christmas jumpers have become very fashionable whether you are participating in a family event or partaking in the 12 Pubs of Limerick. Team Limerick Clean Up is encouraging you to stand out from the crowd and create something unique for yourself or for someone else using materials that would otherwise become waste.

“All people need to do next Saturday is come along with their jumper to the Hunt Museum, choose a design with the fashion team and watch as their jumper is quickly transformed into a festive one for free. All material used to transform the jumpers will be from the recycling waste stream, except a little bit of glitter and glue.

‘‘Fashion trends are forever changing and many items such as seasonal jumpers quite quickly become waste. This is the second year that LCFE have been involved in an initiative like this and we are delighted that this initiative will go toward the Limerick CityCentre Tidy Towns application 2015’’ added Mia Satama  Head of Fashion in LCFE," Mr. Earlie concluded.

Textiles represent between 3% - 5% of the household waste stream even though it is estimated that an item of clothing still has 70% of its useful life left after it has been discarded. Meanwhile, over 70% of the world's population use second hand clothes.

Team Limerick Cleanup was launched at the Limerick Going for Gold Awards in September by Rugby Legend Paul O Connell.  It is a JP McManus Benevolent Fund initiative in conjunction with Limerick City & County Council’s Environment Department.  For more visit www.teamlimerickcleanup.ie.