In mid-October the RREUSE network met in Dublin hosted by the Community Reuse Network Ireland (CRNI). RREUSE members from nine European countries and the USA dedicated three days to getting to know the Irish re-use scene through participating in a conference on Making Reuse and Recycling Happen, site visits and discussions with the Irish colleagues. Apart from learning about the numerous waste prevention initiatives funded by the Irish EPA, the WISER project shared their experience with a reconstruction of an industrial building re-using construction and demolition components.
Site visits started at Camara Education, an international charity operating as a social enterprise that sends refurbished computers and provides digital literacy trainings to educational institutions in Africa and Ireland. In 2015 they handled about 25 000 computers and half of them was reused and installed at schools.
Recycle IT provides WEEE collection service for 100 000 businesses, community organisations and households every year. Putting emphasis on delivering a convenient and reliable service they don’t neglect people with disabilities who can’t participate on the traditional recycling. Thanks to a special permit for entering the households, they are able to provide a quality collection service.
Recreate is a social enterprise scrap store with surplus materials collected from businesses. All imaginable kinds of objects and materials diverted from waste stream and here made available for a creative work. Members of the scrap store, including individuals, schools or artists are given unlimited access to the stock and apparently everything can find a new purpose once made available. Creative workshops organized by Recreate and other initiatives allow children and adults including persons with special needs to work together because unlike in a traditional education process, in a creative process everyone can find their way to participate.