Climate Action Plan profile: Re-using materials unlocks creativity for students
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We spoke to Carla Fallen, Technical Coordinator and Studio Workshop Manager for the Foundation Programme, about her experience running the Re-Use Exchange, where students can access unwanted or excess materials for their work.
Can you tell us about the Re-Use Exchange?
It began with student donations and odd bits of materials donated by colleagues. Over the following years, I gradually began to manage the space and donations from both students and industry.
I am now at the point where I am coordinating and managing the project with the support of two more technicians, Manda Helal and Jason Allcorn. We eventually started getting calls from Jocelyn Foye, Office Manager in the Development team, and now we have a pipeline of donations from other organisations and businesses. People don’t want to waste, and they feel good having given materials to students.
What has been your biggest achievement and biggest challenge from the last year?
I hate throwing things away and I absolutely love being able to give students something for nothing while reducing waste. They don’t all have access to cash, and many are working full-time as well as studying. Our biggest achievement is to help level the playing field.
Our biggest challenge is finding ways to scale the initiative. We simply don’t have enough space to store all the materials so I would love to find ways to realise its full potential.
What are your hopes for the future of this work?
As the Foundation courses move to Lime Grove, I hope that we can expand and grow the offer so the Re-Use Exchange available to even more students. With permanent staffing the exchange could become a teaching and learning space to educate students in areas such as saving energy, reducing waste, recycling and reusing packaging and paper, eliminating the use of plastics, using sustainable transport and beyond.