Sugru ❤️ February 2022
NEWS & STORIES ABOUT REPAIR, WASTING LESS, AND OTHER GOOD STUFF THAT WE'RE LOVING THIS MONTH.
The Craftivist Collective
Craftivism = Craft + Activism. This curious collective founded by award-winning campaigner and author, Sarah Corbett, uses craft to bring awareness to social and global issues. As a community, they use their crafting skills as a way to provide small nudges of support, or serve as physical reminders to others to make positive changes. In the autumn of 2021, the community came together to send their local MPs handmade canary birds with handwritten letters in order to share their concerns about the climate crisis in a creative and thought-provoking way.
Their approach is through 'gentle protest', defined as considered and compassionate. Check out their manifesto here.
Fairtrade Fortnight
From 21st February to 6th March, join thousands of global participants in this year's 'Choose The World You Want' online festival for Fairtrade Fortnight 2022. Don't miss out on a fantastic lineup of discussions and workshops sharing stories of the people who are all too often forgotten, the people who grow and mine our everyday resources. Sign up for free tickets to this year's exciting events.
How awesome are AwesomeBooks?
Did you know that 1 billion books head to landfill every year? It's shocking. That's why the work that AwesomeBooks does, makes them truly deserving of their name. They rescue books from landfill and keep things circular. Whether by reselling to customers around the world in their shop, donating them to literacy programs that they work with, or turning the particularly old or damaged books into pulp, ready to be recycled. They've also got a ‘Buy One-Give One’ scheme, where for every book that is bought from their shop, they donate a book to someone who needs it.
Circular economy is where it's at! 🙌
Bring a little joy to a tired wardrobe
Love the look of visible mending, but not sure where to begin? Pick up a plethora of repair skills in this fantastic short course by Domestika? Fall in love with your stuff all over again with beautiful stand-out stitch techniques. Visible repair don't care! 😍
Changing lives through design
Remap is an incredible UK charity that custom-makes equipment to help people live more independent lives. By harnessing the power of imagination and creative design, they can come up with innovative hacks, adaptations and creations that fit people's individual needs and empower them.
We're proud to support Remap with our Positive Waste Sugru, helping to make sure that assistive technology is available to all who need it, and supporting Remap reach their mission of "no one should be out of reach from Remap".
Sugru founder Jane went Live last week with Peter Cattermole, Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Remap, to discuss the breadth of people the charity helps, to the incredible solutions that have been created and the lovely people who dedicate their time volunteering to the charity.
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Building a community
Make Town, founded by Brooke Dennis, is a colourful 'creative gym' in Hackney that offers sewing classes, weaving workshops, and knitting support groups. It's more than just a gathering of beginners and well-seasoned crafters, it's a community. And pretty soon it's going to be a fully-fledged membership programme. Exciting stuff!
Did you catch Sugru founder Jane chatting with Brooke over on Instagram? No worries if you didn't, it's still available for you to watch here.
We asked, you answered
In last month's survey, we asked about your repair habits, old and new. Of those of you that responded, here are a few things we learnt:
✮ When asked 'What will you plan to do more of this year?' 81.4% said 'Repairing' and 65% said 'DIY-ing'
✮ When asked 'When something of yours breaks, what do you plan to do with it?' 87.6% said 'Try your best to repair it' and 41.2% said 'Ask for help if you can't fix it yourself'
✮ When asked 'If 2021 has shown us anything, it's that the world's attitude towards repair is changing for the better. How hopeful does this make you feel for a less disposable and more sustainable future?' The average rating was 4.1 ☺ out of 5 ☺.
More electric cars on the road
Did you know that there are around 130,000 electric cars currently being sold globally every week? That's roughly equivalent to the number that was sold in all of 2012! It's evident that now more than ever people around the world are making more eco-conscious choices. Will electric cars outnumber fuel cars in the next 10 years? We're keeping all of our fingers and toes crossed!
Source: The Independent.
Make it circular
Loop is a global reuse platform with a purpose to tackle waste. Their partnerships are popping up everywhere, from Kroger in the US, Tesco in the UK, McDonalds and even Tim Hortons in Canada! Keep an eye out for the next Loop facility at your local shop, cafe or eatery.
"How does it work?" we hear you ask? Once customers finish with their Loop products, they are able to take the empty packaging back to a Loop collection bin at one of these stores, and by scanning their items on a Loop App on their phones, customers can check them into the machine and receive a refund for the deposit they paid at check out. Collected packaging will then be cleaned, reused and returned to circulation.
Awesome stuff! Here's to the future of circular economy.
Phones you can repair
Have you heard of Fairphone? We came across them in the 'Waste Age: What can design do?' Exhibition at the Design Museum last year. They make smartphones that are built with repair in mind, giving the power back to the consumer 💪. From responsible material sourcing to an easy-to-take-apart design to offering spare parts, they're contributing to a fairer space in the electronics world. Amazing work.
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Want more to adore? Check out what we were loving in January. ❤️