Ostrero: Organising workshops to teach primary pupils to make their own circular fashion

Over the last 100 years we have seen a rapid shift in our views on product use and disposal, we largely live within a linear economy which is based on a straight line: we take things out of the ground, make something from them, use them (often only once or twice), and throw them away hoping someone else will sort it out.

While young children are taught about recycling from a young age at primary level, they are rarely taught about the linear or circular models. Also, when it comes to the circular economy, fashion and textiles are often overlooked as they are generally seen as a cheap and disposable resource. This has been exacerbated through the fast-fashion industry model.

It also is largely reported that children and young people are losing their fine motor and creative hands on skills in the modern world. Skills such as threading needles or tying knots are becoming increasingly difficult to teach at schools, because children don't generally use these at home.

Underpinned by the "Cradle to Cradle" work of Braungart and McDonough, Ostrero aims to bring the circular economy to education all across Scotland. They not only advocate the way we should look at waste from an environmental perspective, but also believe that by maximising the use of resources, it makes products financially efficient, thereby also saving money.

They have set about holding half day workshops under the project "Making Circles" for primary-aged children in Scotland. While they largely focus on general household waste, they have also incorporated some workshops on making fashion garments from waste materials which focus on developing hand skills. Therefore, they have successfully tackled issues of overconsumption waste and lower levels of hand skills through exploring the potential of circular design and giving children a valuable hands-on experience.

The Making Circles workshops have been highly successful and they have secured funding to continue this work during the 2022 academic year. They have worked with over 3000 children, in over 50 schools, and their work has been displayed in National Museums Scotland.

The children they have worked with, in particular those who struggle academically, have benefited greatly from the act of creation and teachers have seen their engagement within the classroom increased. Some children have even written to local companies to demand they reduce their use of single use plastic.

Ostereo have also developed educational resources for teachers to embed the circular economy within their own classrooms, although these are not explicitly textiles based.