‘Save the planet, one stitch at a time’.
It is with this motto in my mind that Why Waste? joined hands with the youth led organization Rescrapped to organize a workshop focusing on fabric pollution and ways to combat it through individual action. Scrap the Scrap Workshop was held on 30 May, 2020. It was led by Chief Communication Officer of Why Waste? Neil Kirloskar as well as R&D Manager of Rescrapped Loria Michelle Fernandes, Chief Resource Mobilizer Moufida Mohideen and Social Media Advisor Roshni Suresh Babu. The session began with a brief introduction about the impact of fabric pollution that is often overlooked. The ‘Rescrapped’ team presented a short video highlighting the importance of cutting down on our fabric waste and focusing on reusing and recycling them. Moufida Mohideen then spoke about the mission of ‘Rescrapped’ which is condensed into a six-letter acronym TORQUE. “Torque is a physics term that stands for the force required to bring out a circular motion. Similarly, TORQUE is a mission to bring out a 180 degree reversal in our environmental policies and daily actions”, she said. T stands for Take. Team ‘Rescrapped’ collects scrap cloth from tailors and students of various schools to prevent the scrap from reaching the landfills. O stands for Organize and R stands for Restore. They then sort out the scrap they have collected and turn them into face masks, notebooks and pouches. These items are then donated to students in underprivileged areas who are unable to afford notebooks and pencil pouches. Moufida, Loria and Roshni then presented a tutorial on making masks and notebooks from scrap cloth. This training session proved to be highly beneficial for all the participants. Q stands for Quantify. Loria went to explain how much of an impact individual actions have on cutting down fabric pollution. “Within a span of 10 minutes, we have managed to restore more than 1000 square centimeter of scrap cloth. If we are to make this a part of our everyday life, we could make the fashion industry more sustainable”, Loria said. U stands for Ubiquitous. Roshni ventured to talk about the role of social media in helping team Rescrapped connect with more people and create awareness. E stands for Environment. “Fabric pollution is not something to be looked at in isolation. It has a huge impact on our soil, water and fossil fuels. So our goal is to address so many sustainable development goals through rescrapping fabric waste”, Roshni remarked. As the workshop edged towards a close, team Rescrapped presented a short video describing the environmental and social impact that their campaign has made so far. They urged all the participants to go out and make a difference; one stitch at a time.
This article was written for Why Waste?, by Anagha Rajesh. Anagha Rajesh is a recent high school graduate, based in UAE, and has previously written brilliant articles for Why Waste?, and she is the co-founder of e-magazine MindChamps that offers youngsters a platform to open up about mental health. She also serves as a facilitator for the Digital Exchange Program and as a member of the Girls in Science 4 SDG’s platform under the aegis of the United Nations.
A recording of this Hopeschooling episode can be found on our YouTube channel by clicking here. This episode was conducted in collaboration with Rescrapped, and their Instagram can be found by clicking here.
