Community groups in Meath are being offered FREE Upcycling workshops in the award-winning Rediscovery Centre (in Dublin 11) as part of the Reuse Academy, is a partnership between the Eastern Midlands Regional Waste Office and the Rediscovery Centre.

The Reuse Academy aims to promote reuse skills in areas such as furniture upcycling, fashion upcycling and bike repair. The Reuse Academy is offering a limited number of FREE courses facilitated by skilled trainers from the Rediscovery Centre and suitable for community groups, youth clubs, men’s sheds and secondary schools.

Bernadine Carry, Meath County Council explained that “Each course provides a fun and creative way to find new uses for old items. Each participant will leave having learned a new skill. These furniture, bike and fashion upcycling workshops help to reduce the amount of items going to landfill, instead giving them a new lease of life.  There is a max of 12 people allowed per group”  The bike maintenance workshops, which will teach participants how to repair and maintain their bikes, are a particularly popular offering of the Reuse Academy.

In addition to fostering creativity, reusing materials has excellent potential to create jobs within communities and the Reuse Academy courses can be tailored to include advice on starting a reuse social enterprise or micro enterprise in the community.

Speaking about the partnership, Hugh Coughlan, co-ordinator of the Eastern-Midlands Region said “Working with the Rediscovery Centre, the EMWR has developed the reuse academy to help building reuse capacity throughout the region. The programme aims to provide training and support to early stage projects and individuals engaged in reuse activity.”

Sarah Miller, CEO of the Rediscovery Centre, stated that “The Reuse Academy is a great opportunity for community groups to work with the Rediscovery Centre and to learn from our highly skilled trainers and our experience working in reuse over the past decade. With the generous contribution from EMWR we can now provide these workshops free of charge which remove the main barriers community organisations face in accessing these great workshops. Places are limited and as always the courses will be really popular so we would encourage groups to book as soon as possible.”

To book a place on the REUSE Academy and to discuss the course best suited to your group, contact Bernadine Carry, Environment Section Meath County Council at bcarry@meathcoco.ie 046 9097222 or Joanne Rourke, Resource Efficiency Officer in the Eastern Midlands Regional Waste office at joanne.rourke@dublincity.ie .

Meath County Council will assist with transport costs for groups wishing to attend.

There are a limited number of workshops available to us, so please let us know asap if you are interested in attending.