Junk becomes art at ‘Our Zero Waste’
This community event showed visitors a huge variety of ways to reduce and reuse waste.
Exhibitors provided hands-on advice on how to minimise waste, including how unwanted items can be used in a variety of ways – even to produce music, fashion and art.
Local charity shops entered the ‘charity shop challenge’ to dress a wedding guest for less than £25 to demonstrate how stylish second-hand clothes can be. The outfits were displayed on mannequins and visitors to the event voted for their favourite. The proud winners were Sense Scotland in Peebles and Borders Animal Welfare in Galashiels.
Trash, a Borders-based junk percussion group provided music for the day, showing event visitors how old kettles and piping can be turned into instruments.
An art display showed the results of a recent competition when primary school pupils were asked to design a poster promoting waste minimisation. The winning entry, by Charlotte Moore, aged 10, from Lilliesleaf Primary School, is now three-metres wide and touring the Borders on the side of a number of refuse collection vehicles.
The second piece of art was the ‘wall of bags’. The display of more than 100 different bags for life, donated by individuals, companies and charities, showed the variety now on offer to help shoppers to be greener by reducing the amount of plastic bags being produced and ultimately going to landfill.
Other exhibitors included Bookdonors, eco schools, Scottish Borders Master Composters programme, Ask Organic, various local supermarkets, Borders Real Nappy Network and the Scottish Waste Awareness Group who were promoting their ‘Love Food, Hate Waste’ campaign.