Case Study:

Reduce Reuse Recycle – The 3Rs Project

The 3Rs Project: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, aims to educate and inspire the next generation to help them understand how they can help protect the environment for the future.

This project aims to provide public, private and education sector bodies, a route to inform on and create alternative uses and practices for items and resources surplus to their requirements.

The guided programme makes use of the organisation’s own surplus materials to create physical objects using an array of traditional and modern design and manufacturing techniques.

We will work with teachers or group leaders to deliver a series of learning and training outcomes to highlight issues and solutions to climate change and the environmental impacts of modern life, by introducing and inspiring vocational skills to create lasting physical reminders of how creativity can help reduce waste and encourage sustainability.

Inspiring

To inspire those taking part to help identify some of the challenges facing their own personal and wider environment, and inspiring possible solutions.

Engagement

To engage participants to utilise their unwanted items to gain an understanding of basic skills in craft design, manufacture and the benefits of reducing, reusing and recycling.

Lasting physical reminder

To create a physical reminder for the client manufactured from their items that are surplus to requirement – such as sculpture, art and furniture, in order to facilitate a change in understanding and lifestyles,

Training

By giving groups a basic understanding that they may need to overcome some technical challenges using creativity.

“Thank you for letting us do such extraordinary things in return for our good behaviour.”

Hannah

“It was awesomely epic!”

Tabitha

“It was marvellous because we did hot metal work”

Ben

Amotherby School

This project focused on the need to reuse surplus-to-requirements school furniture. Piers, the resident blacksmith and designer, facilitated a live demonstration of forging old metal into a fossil keyring, highlighting the value of traditional craft skills and their close relationship with sustainability.

The children were practically and kinaesthetically involved, seeking out and working with old metal and other materials, identifying techniques to reduce, reuse and recycle waste. Additionally, they learned about biodiversity in the local area, along with the impacts of climate change. The children were also the main influencers in the design of a tree-shaped bike shelter that was created from recycled metal.

Local press article

Sue Knowles, headteacher at Amotheby School, said:

“This project has been really exciting for the children to work on. They’ve had hands-on experience at blacksmithing and learning about the value of recycling.

“As a result, we have a bespoke bike shelter constructed from old school chairs and redundant bits of metal.

“The bike shelter will be used in our school community for a very long time, including a cycling scheme for the children to learn about safety.

“I would like to thank Piers and Steve for giving their time to this project and teaching traditional skills alongside important environmental issues.”