Pass It On Week activities

Pass It On Week 5 – 13 March

Local organisations are backing a national campaign that aims to encourage people to keep things in use for longer.

Edinburgh residents are set to answer a national call to make things last. A host of local events have been lined up for this year’s Pass it On Week – an annual event in the recycling and reuse calendar.

In Edinburgh, this includes a diverse mix of activity, including:

–       Upcycled World are running furniture painting workshops at Tribe Porty in Portobello on 5th March to breath new life into old furniture.

–       Gorgie City Farm (above) are holding a seed swap for green-fingered locals on 12th of March.

–       Students at Edinburgh Napier University are holding a Trash Fashion event on 9th March, upcycling old bike inner tubes into fashion accessories.

–       Pupils at Abbeyhill Primary School are holding a school uniform swap on 11th March.

–       Edinburgh University Students are creating a ‘Re-use Hoose’ on 15th March to show how to much can be done with re-used household items.

These are just some of more than 250 swapping, donating, sharing, upcycling and repairing events happening across Scotland to help products stay in use as long as possible, helping to reduce our impact on the planet.

Pass it on Week is also about encouraging people to buy more re-used items. There is a growing network of second hand shops across Scotland that have achieved the Revolve quality standard, which aims to get more people buying used items.

Edinburgh has several Revolve accredited stores including the Bike Station which specialises in refurbished bikes and a number of re-used furniture stores including Fresh Start on Ferry Road Drive and the Edinburgh Furniture Initiative which has superstores in Sighthill and Cannonmills.

Zero Waste Scotland chief executive Iain Gulland said: “We’ve had a tremendous response to Pass it On Week across Scotland this year, and it’s great to see so much activity in Edinburgh. Keeping items in use for longer can save money, create job opportunities and make best use of the world’s raw materials that go into making the goods that we consume.

“It’s all about creating a society where we see the value in things instead of treating them as disposable. By sharing, swapping, repairing, buying second-hand and doing all we can to make things last, we can develop a more sustainable, circular economy for a flourishing Scotland.”

With more events being added all the time, Edinburgh residents should head to www.passitonweek.com and look up events in their area to see what’s happening.