Flying the flag for circularity - tote bag ‘take and make’ kits
For much of the year they fly high atop flagpoles in the city’s many activity centres, fluttering excitedly as they join Monash residents down below during celebrations, festivals and major events.
Now these brightly coloured pennants and banners will help us fly the flag for circularity, following the launch of a successful repurposing campaign.
Recently, more than 150 large material flags that had been used to promote the city’s vibrant festival seasons and events, were decommissioned.
Council’s Sustainable Monash team was determined to do better than just recycle them, or worse, send them to landfill. With that in mind, sustainability educator Celina Samarakoon hit upon an upcycling masterstroke.
Drawing on the experience of her university days and, using the skills she’d developed in gaining a Bachelor of Fashion and Textiles (Sustainable Innovation), Celina was confident that this abundance of textile material could be repurposed and, most importantly, repurposed creating minimal waste in the process.
She set about designing a low waste pattern, which transformed the flag fabric into library tote bag ‘take and make’ kits. The Sustainable Monash team then partnered with The Social Studio, which cut the patterns from the flags. It proved a perfect transformation, with the flag material not only brightly coloured but durable enough to carry the weight of a hefty load of library books.
The Social Studio is a not-for-profit social enterprise that uses fashion and creativity to create work and learning opportunities for Melbourne’s refugee and new migrant communities. More than 820 people have come through its doors since it opened in 2009, learning valuable fashion industry skills.
“The sustainability team met, and we asked ourselves ‘is there something we can do with the textile material from the flags'?” Celina said. “So, we ran a trial with our team – How experienced a sewer do you need to be? How long does it take to make a bag?
“Then we partnered with (Monash) libraries to deliver the kits.”
The tote bag kits proved to be an instant hit with no fewer than 430 picked up by the community in very quick time - the equivalent of 43kg of textile waste saved from landfill.
“It was an extremely big take-up from when it first landed,” Celina said. “We asked for feedback and had parents message us to share that they’d taught their children to sew (via the kits). Passing-on skills down a generation.”
All of the flags had enough material for about 5 ½ tote bags.
“And there was almost zero waste,” Celina said. “Just a few scraps left over that went to recycling. Mostly a few edges that had been damaged by the weather.”
While the flag repurposing is an important step down the circularity pathway, there’s still a very long way to go.
In Victoria, the average person creates 28kgs of textile waste per year. About 95 per cent of clothes sent to landfill could have been reused or recycled but just 7% of textile waste is recycled (Sustainability Victoria’s Our war on textile waste 2023).
WANT TO GET INVOLVED?
The Sustainable Monash team still has tote bag ‘take and make’ kits available for interested sewers. Email sustainability@monash.vic.gov.au to find out more and get involved.
Repurposing flags is just one small example of a creative way to extend the life of the items we use. The Sustainable Monash team is here to support the Monash community to embrace a circular economy where items are reused, repurposed, or repaired rather than sent to landfill.
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