Circular Economy

RenCAN Hub works to promote a culture that celebrates reuse, repair, sharing and remaking locally to build a local circular economy and reduce waste. We are lucky to have many brilliant local organisations and projects as members of RenCAN who are brimming with creativity and resourcefulness in doing this work. 

Circular Renfrewshire

We have developed a booklet to signpost local projects and services that repair, mend and share including community repair initiatives, tool libraries, textile projects and projects redistributing surplus food and much more. In it, you can also find links to a wealth of information about a circular economy, repair manuals, the right to repair and much more. You can download it here or by clicking on the image below.

Remade in Renfrewshire

We work with partner organisations active in the arts, community development, health, youth and more to offer workshops in upcycled arts and crafts, remaking items and repurposing materials to divert them from landfill and give them a second life.

By creating beautiful and useful things out of items that would otherwise have gone to waste, we re-imagine local production sustainably and encourage makers to get canny with materials, and repurpose rather than buy new. And very importantly, crafting and making together promotes wellbeing and combats isolation and loneliness.

To date we have worked with ReMode, Sewing2gether All Nations, Creating A Sustainable Gryffe, Just Dive, Rainbow Turtle and others to offer opportunities to learn upcycling and mending skills.

Repaired in Renfrewshire

We support community initiatives aimed at fixing and sharing things, such as repair cafes and tool libraries. This is to reduce waste, share skills and use fewer resources. It can also be cheaper to borrow than to buy new.

So far we have worked with Own Yer Bike to offer pop-up bike checks and small repairs, hosted a talk by Barshaw Tool Library and started FIX & MEND, a new community repair initiative in Lochwinnoch. We have also worked with Creating A Sustainable Gryffe, and brought their brilliant Gryffe Repair Cafe to Paisley last October.

Support and Guidance

We're  looking to support existing and new initiatives through networking, advice and can sometimes assist with funding applications. 

We'd love to hear from you if you run or are look to set up initiatives involving repair, mending and refurbishment of items, and/or related skills training in Renfrewshire. They can be repair cafes, tool or toy libraries, swap shops or much more. Contact svenja@myleapproject.org

The Climate and our 'Stuff'

"The circular economy is a system where materials never become waste and nature is regenerated. In a circular economy, products and materials are kept in circulation through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling, and composting." - Ellen MacArthur Foundation

RenCAN Hub is part of Circular Economies Scotland. How does switching to a circular economy help our climate?

To reduce our emissions, energy efficiency and switching to renewable energy are not enough. We also need to change the way we make and use products, materials, and food. We can do this in three ways:

We need wider change on a policy level for private sectors to change production and consumption processes. Organisations such as The Restart Project and the Open Repair Alliance campaign for the Right to Repair, in particular of electrical and electronic items.

But it is in our communities that change often begins, and where share & repair initiatives and innovation can go a long way to help the climate and improve our quality of life.