When thinking about living an environmentally sustainable life, the first thing most people think about is the 3Rs: ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’. As part of Sussex Green Living’s education outreach programme, we initiated a School Challenge looking at how you can reduce waste by repairing.

Our school challenge for Horsham District Schools was supported by a Horsham District Council Lottery Fund grant, a donation from a Horsham councillor and kindly judged by Horsham artist, Morag Warrack.

The challenge invited students to learn about repair cafés, what they do and how they help reduce waste on our planet. There are items that could be repaired but often people don’t have the skillset to make repairs. Repair Cafés are run by volunteers who have both a passion and the expertise to repair electrical, mechanical and textile items. The premise is that you can take along your items and for a small donation, they will try to fix them while you stay, watch and hopefully learn a new skill at the same time.

The pupils were asked to create a poster of their local repair café and share it in their local community. Sussex Green Living supported the schools by delivering assemblies, classroom sessions with eco councils and school visits with our Inspiration Eco Station.