Textiles event in Macroom as part of the war on waste

Across Ireland, something wonderful and practical is taking shape.

It looks like a toy library, or a vintage shop, or tools being shared amongst neighbours.

It looks like someone fixing a chair instead of throwing it in a skip and turning what one person calls waste into what another calls a resource.

This is the circular economy in action, a stuffy name for something very human.

It isn’t policy documents or corporate sustainability reports. It’s being built by communities and small businesses in places like Cobh, Clonmel, and Cahirseveen, often without much fanfare and usually on very modest budgets.

Take a look around Cork and you’ll see it everywhere, once you know what you’re looking for:

Food-sharing projects rescuing good food from the bin;

Reuse and vintage shops giving clothes and furniture second and third lives (and offering people affordable options while they’re at it);

Repair cafés where a broken chair turns into a skills-sharing morning;

Rural development groups bringing circular and sustainable thinking to villages that have never heard the phrase, because the practice makes sense to people even when the jargon doesn’t.

There are toy libraries keeping toys in circulation for families, social enterprises turning textile waste into training and jobs, and creative groups turning what festivals leave behind into useful materials for next year’s events.

What strikes me about all of these is how they started. It can often be by parents who got tired of buying toys their children outgrew in a month, or a volunteer who knew the skip wasn’t the only destination for a perfectly good chair. Sometimes, it’s small businesses that realise pre-loved could be a livelihood as well as a principle. This is who is building the circular economy in Ireland.

The thing that can help these people leading our shift towards a more sustainable, circular society is support.

This could be financial, such as grants to help them tell their story or build their service, or as simple as the social support you gain from being part of a strong, vibrant community or network.

There is no shortage of brilliant circular initiatives around Ireland, what we have far less of is the connection between them. Knowing who else is out there.

By sharing our learnings, we can stop every group trying to solve the same problems at the same time.

A community group in one county reinventing what another group perfected two years ago is a different kind of waste, and avoidable.

This is the thinking behind the work Circular.ie does all year.

Our grants programme helps initiatives tell their stories to a wider audience, while our Full Circle Awards shine a light on the excellent work happening on the ground.

Our Connecting Communities events do something very simple, they bring people working in the circular space together into one room.

This week we hosted one of these events in St Peter’s in Cork city. It was a wonderful evening where local initiatives showcased the work they are doing - we even had a circular community artist speak about his work bringing volunteers together.

We saw groups and businesses sharing contacts and making plans to work together. It’s exciting to know that connections made at these events may turn to further projects down the line.

At times, we hear the world of circularity can feel exclusive, a space for people who already bring their own bags, repair their own clothes and sort their own bins.

But, the positives for both communities and the environment are enormous when circular practices reach people who have never thought of themselves as ‘green’ at all.

For instance, a toy library may be used by families who come for affordable toys and stay because of the community. A repair café serves people who come in with a broken lamp, but it leaves them excited by the learning of a new skill. Circularity isn’t a lifestyle for the converted. It’s practical, it saves money, and it’s for everyone.

So what does support actually look like? Funding streams that recognise the value of prevention and reuse, not just recycling. Recognition of the time and hard work put in often by volunteers. Media giving these stories the same space as any other business success. And local authorities and development agencies treating circular initiatives as part of their infrastructure, because that’s what they are. This practical approach is also being explored through Circular.ie’s partnership with Design & Crafts Council Ireland for Irish Design Week.

This Friday, November 13, Cork entrepreneur Ailís Crowley, founder of FASH Forward, will lead Reimagining Hospitality Textiles, a hands-on workshop at Castle Hotel Macroom, exploring how discarded hotel towels can be transformed into new products through creative techniques such as embroidery and customisation.

It’s another example of how rethinking materials can turn what might otherwise be considered waste into something useful.

The groups doing this work are building a circular Ireland. They are valuing the materials that are already in use and bringing new life to ‘waste’ products. They are strengthening communities and offering opportunities to upskill, learn and share from one another.

What they’re waiting for is the rest of us to notice, show up and support.

• Circular.ie is Ireland’s national hub for circular innovation, action and solutions. Through its partnership with Design & Crafts Council Ireland for Irish Design Week 2026, Circular.ie is supporting and highlighting events across Ireland that showcase creative approaches to repair, reuse and resourcefulness.

• Read on Irish Examiner

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