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Kids clothing to change the world?

Posted: 2nd June 2021

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if there were some way to make clothing for our children last longer, grow with them, and provide them with an opportunity to embrace their creativity at the same time?

Wouldn’t it be fantastic if they could help design their own clothes, learn skills, and discover how to protect their precious environment – and have a great time doing it?

It would – and now they can thanks to the work of Almaborealis, a Lothians’ based business that is bringing circular economy thinking to the world of children’s fashion and textiles with the tagline “create think play learn grow”, and they’re working with Circular Edinburgh to spread the word.

A circular economy looks to keep the flow of materials and products within the economy for as long as possible, extracting the maximum value from them whilst in use.

The Circular Edinburgh project is supported as part of Zero Waste Scotland’s Resource Efficient Circular Economy Accelerator Programme, which will invest £73m in circular economy and resource efficiency projects, thanks to support from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This programme provides funding and support for small and medium sized businesses in Scotland to be more resource efficient and create a more circular economy.

Almaborealis is a children’s clothing brand with a commitment to raising awareness of clothes making processes, traditional skills and the life cycle of textiles, in the aim to reduce waste, raise awareness of clothes making processes and share craft skills with future generations.

They offer a product range, Convertible Clothing (soon to be launched), as well as a range of hands-on workshops to where children from 3 years onwards, can get involved in creating their own clothing, whilst practicing lifelong skills such as creative thinking, problem solving, material knowledge as well dexterity, hand-and eye-coordination.

Maija Nygren , Managing Director of Almaborealis said: “From a customer relationship perspective, by offering repairable, re-usable or recyclable products to a consumer, a community is created. By building a relationship, a returning customer can embark on a journey with the business and work together in creating a circular approach to producing goods or services.”

The company produces clothing with a prolonged life in use, locally, using high quality biodegradable raw materials sourced in Scotland that can be recycled and reused once the product’s life cycle comes to an end as a garment.

They are also keen to encourage circular economy thinking through their efforts to inform young citizens of the production methods of clothing, to illustrate material flows, use and destination of textiles.

Maija added: “We do the above through offering a range of textile workshops as well as a product range, Convertible Clothing, a participatory clothing concept, where children make their own clothing in a playful and creative way. Children will repair and extend their own garments using tactile tools and traditional craft skills. The garments are designed to grow along growth spurts and to be worn approximately five years.”

According to work carried out by the Circular Economy charity WRAP UK simply increasing the use of clothing by nine months would reduce carbon, waste and water footprints by around 20-30% each and cut resource costs by around 20%.

Maijaadded: “Committing to adopting a mindset that set to build towards fully circular business model, may feel like a big ask, but it can be a rewarding experience and will be of great benefit, for future and present inhabitants in this grand symbiosis on earth.

“The shift into a fully circular Scotland will require complete systematic change. Climate change and pollution are not moral dilemmas that can be left for each individual business leader to decide upon. Circularity is not a passing trend, but a sustainable infrastructure that, if well designed, can help future generations to thrive. As important as it is for business leaders to prepare for a shift towards circularity, a mindset of consideration towards consumption, resourcefulness and systemic thinking at early years and throughout primary and secondary education, is required to be embedded in the curriculum to raise next generation of circular thinkers.”

 

For further information please visit https://www.edinburghchamber.co.uk/circular-edinburgh/ or contact Mayan Grace or Lauren Ridgley on 0131 221 2999 (option 5) or email circulareconomy@edinburghchamber.co.uk

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