The Rediscovery Centre

BACKGROUND

The Rediscovery Centre is the National Centre for the Circular Economy in Ireland. The organisation connects people, ideas, and resources to support greener low-carbon living. It brings together the skills and expertise of artists, scientists, designers, and craftspeople united in a common purpose of sustainability - supporting four reused social enterprises specialised in furniture, fashion, paint and bikes. Rediscovery Centre also has a research department, education department and an Ecostore.

Rediscovery Centre Education provides a variety of exciting and interactive workshops that are based on hands-on enquiry and experiential learning. Its workshops for primary, secondary, and third level cover a wide variety of environmental and STEAM topics (Science, Engineering, Technology, Art & Maths), and can be delivered online, onsite and outreach. The workshops can also be tailored to the needs of specific groups e.g., special needs group, youth and community groups, language schools, etc.

To mitigate the impact of COVID-19, Rediscovery Centre recently produced a series of videos on” how to rediscover at home” aimed at informing people on what they can do about waste reuse and education at home. Rediscovery Centre also created a new webpage, with home school resources that provide people guidance on things they can do with their children. In November 2020, Rediscovery Centre ran a science festival with 79 different activities and 16 different partners.

CURRENT PROJECTS

Rediscover Fashion: Rediscover Fashion is a social enterprise and Ireland's leader in circular fashion that creates training opportunities for the long term unemployed. The programme highlights that an 63,000 tonnes of textile waste in Ireland is sent to landfill and it aims to counteract this by teaching members of the public repair and reuse skills through interactive workshops, demonstrations and talks.

Rediscover Furniture: Rediscover Furniture brings new life to old furniture and takes great pride in the fact that the furniture if not rescued would have been destined for landfill. It is a social enterprise that creates training opportunities for the long term unemployed and all revenue generated from its activities are reinvested back into the enterprise.

Rediscover Paint: Rediscover Paint is a social enterprise that collects paint from recycling centres and recycles it to create new colours. This paint is then sold in our Eco Store and our online shop for €1.50 per 1 Litre. The programme provides training opportunities to people distanced from the workplace and reduces the environmental impact of paint disposal.

Rediscover Cycling: Rediscover Cycling is a social enterprise that has been putting life back into unwanted bicycles since 2010. Bikes donated for reuse are collected from the recycling centres and we create revamped bicycles to be sold in the Eco Store located in the Rediscovery Centre.