Reuse by Recreating

Guest blogger, Clodagh O’Reilly, Chief Executive, Recreate Ireland

ReCreate is delighted to be part of Reuse month. It’s more important than ever that we all get to grips with how each of us can make small changes in their everyday life to support a better environment.

ReCreate is a thriving social enterprise based in Ballymount, Dublin 12. Our vision is to establish a national social enterprise fostering creativity, valuing social inclusion and protecting the environment.

Through our activities, we make unusual creative supplies affordable and accessible to every sector of the community. This is achieved by salvaging clean, reusable materials from businesses and distributing them whilst also running creative workshops. We work to encourage the reuse of these materials, that would normally be sent to landfill or for recycling, in all kinds of creative and inventive ways. 

ReCreate opened its doors in November 2013 and since then has scaled up significantly with the support of the very dedicated founding organisations, a large number of suppliers nationwide, key funders, supporters and staff. As a social enterprise focused on creativity through reuse, ReCreate has already made a substantial impact in each of its key areas of activity. Last year alone we diverted over 220 tonnes of materials from landfill. 

So why do people use ReCreate –
“Recreate benefits the service as we have access to materials on a regular basis that we might otherwise not have access to. It allows the staff to plan for creativity and allows us to provide lots of open ended activities for the children.” Creative Kids, Creche – Dublin