Reuse materials, the circular economy and ways you can make your everyday more sustainable

Be inspired to create with these courses and kits whilst learning more about the use and reuse of materials.

It can be difficult to keep up with all the new sustainability news, especially when trying to balance personal lifestyle choices with your communal and global responsibilities. The sheer volume of sustainability topics to consider can be mind-boggling, so it’s no wonder many of us don’t know where to start. Some of the most common environmental problems within popular discourse include plastic pollution, deforestation, landfill and global warming. These topics are all important and undeniably linked to one another, and there are measures that can be taken in dealing with each of these. One such measure is what has been styled as the circular economy.

The circular economy attempts to extend the life of materials used for consumption for as long as possible, through various actions such as recycling materials, repairing products, and reusing whatever is at one’s disposal. This addresses sustainability in a few different ways: it reduces the amount of energy it takes to produce raw materials, it prevents things like deforestation and plastic production, and reclaims materials from consumer objects from landfills.

Landfills are sites used for the disposal of waste materials by burying them. Most waste materials end up in landfills, which increases due to improper ways of discarding rubbish. Landfills are a major contributor to pollution and break down at a significantly slower rate.

Whilst the pressure should be laid on major corporations and government bodies to restrict the amount of carbon and waste produced, it is also important to make environmentally conscious decisions as a consumer. And if, as a consumer, you’d like to be a part of the circular economy but aren’t sure how, we’ve got your back.

There are plenty of everyday measures you can take up, such as being mindful of how you use resources and considering the way you consume water, travel, use heat and use things that are created through manufactured procedures. But a concrete step which you can take, that we at Yodomo believe in, is to form the healthy habit of mending and repairing, as well as using reused materials that would otherwise find their way into landfills.

We’ve compiled our favourite kits and courses which use materials that were otherwise destined to end up in the bin, all from makers that practice sustainability in their unique ways. Be inspired to create whilst learning more about the use and reuse of materials, learn a new skill as you further develop your sense of mindfulness and nurture a deeper understanding of where things come from and how it’s made. Best of all, these activities offer instant gratification when you complete your project, making sustainability more rewarding than ever before.