Following on from hugely successful events earlier in the year, on Saturday the 9th of December, the Zero Waste Festival is back with a festive touch!
Gift-giving, decorating, to wrap or not to wrap - Christmas can be a bit of a Zero Waste disaster! If you would like a little help navigating the holidays, come along to Dublin Food Co-Op in Newmarket, Dublin 8 from 10am to 5pm. Mixed in with the usual Saturday market there will be Zero Waste vendors, where you can pick up your essentials and maybe a Christmas treat or two. There will be workshops throughout the day, covering topics from making your own gifts and decorations to avoiding food waste. Our ever-popular swap shop is back, so you can dress to impress for the party season without the guilt. We will also have a dedicated rail for Christmas jumpers - just make sure to bring one along if you want to swap. Experts from various charities and organisations will be on hand to answer your questions at our info stands. No question is silly - as always, we are all there to learn and grow on our journey, no matter where on the road you are.
Access to the market and swap shop is free and is buggy and wheelchair accessible. A day-long pass for workshops can be bought on Eventbrite for €5. Spaces are limited and we cannot guarantee we will have tickets left on the day. The pass entitles you to entry into as many workshops as you like on the day, but you must sign up in advance at the info desk.
Note, the Festival has been moved to St. Andrew’s Resource Centre on Pearse Street.
Image Gallery
DIY decorations
Fresh produce
Home made pickles
IMG_7616
Impressions from the Festival
Impressions from the marlet
Make it yourself
Package free cheese
Package free food
Soap at the Market
Swap Shop
Talks
Workshops and Talks
Workshops
Zero Waste market
loose goods
Workshops and Talks
| 10am | Sustainable Christmas Decorating | Patricia O’Flynn |
| 11am | Wrap it! Eco-Friendly Gift-Wrapping Ideas | Timi Nicholson of Simple No Waste Life |
| 12pm | Yummy Gifts Easy as a Pie | Zdenka of Coming to Zero |
| 1pm | (Upcycled) Stocking Fillers - Beauty Edition | Molly Aylesbury of Bare Necessities |
| 2pm | Christmas Endy Bits and What to Do with Them | Anne Hession of Endy Bits |
| 3pm | Homemade Play Dough | Aoife Morrin |
| 4pm | Vegetarian Alternatives for Christmas | Aaron Jewell of Permascape |
Sustainable Christmas Decorating
A fun and creative workshop to get you in the festive spirit. Patricia will share ideas and show you how to make your own decorations out of natural, sustainable and upcycled materials. From garlands to tree decorations you’ll have your enthusiasm renewed to revive your home for the holiday season.
The workshop will be lead by Patricia O’Flynn. Trish is a preschool teacher so is no stranger to creative projects. She grew up in a house built in the seventies which meant that the stairs were in the sitting room. What does that have to do with Christmas you might ask. Well, the space between stairs and upstairs landing allowed them to have an 8 foot tree when she was little. Each year she loved decorating the tree with her siblings. Until it was her job each year and she relished being given creative licence.
Wrap it! Eco-Friendly Gift-Wrapping Ideas
Hosted by Timi Nicholson, the face behind Simple No Waste Life. She and her family started their Zero Waste journey after their first child was born. The journey started with switching to cloth nappies and soon all disposable items in the household had to go. Since then, Timi has been featured in major publications such as the Irish Examiner and Greennews.ie, in addition to appearing on Eco Eye, Ireland’s longest running environmental programme. She has given several talks on eco-friendly habits and Zero Waste Living at different forums from the Earth Baby Fair to LinkedIn’s headquarters in Dublin.
Yummy Gifts Easy as a Pie
Come along if you want to treat your friends and family to homemade edible gifts, sweet and savoury, maybe with a little kick and perhaps even cutting food waste while you’re at it…
The workshop will be hosted by Zdenka Priehodova, originally from Slovakia and living in Dublin since 2007. She likes all the seasons, their colours and smells…and she also loves our little blue planet and decided to do her bit to keep it in shape for future generations. She believes that a small act can spark the thought of change in many so she shares her ups and downs on her journey to zero waste on her blog comingtozero.com. If she is not collecting and cleaning glass jars or filling them with the results of her kitchen experiments, you will find her trying to grow her own veg in a tiny urban garden or looking up new ways of preventing food waste.
(Upcycled) Stocking Fillers - Beauty Edition
Christmas is almost upon us and that means presents! While people say the gift is in the giving, keeping to zero waste principles can be hard! Some people are impossible to shop for even ignoring ZW (looking at you aunt who has everything)! Often the fall back is beauty gift sets, over-packaged and filled with perfumes and synthetic ingredients. Nightmare! There is a simple solution at hand though. Making your own is easy and looks a lot more thoughtful! Join this workshop to learn how to make beauty treats and to sample before you gift! For the ladies in your life there are vegan lotion bars, body scrubs and other delicious potions and lotions! If the men in your life have gotten shaving sets all their Christmases no need to change! For the smooth-cheeked there will be shaving cream and the bearded gentlemen can have beard balm and oil! Have a hippy Christmas!
Molly has spent her life making-her-own, growing-her-own and doing-it-herself. She was the only kid in her junior infants class who wanted to save the trees when she grew up and at 28 she feels she is slowly getting there, though has a long way to go to be self sufficient yet. She has a BSc. in Environmental Biology and a MSc in Sustainable Development and most would say that her foraged jams are some of the best. Molly makes most of her own food, beauty and cleaning products with friends as usually willing guinea pigs. All of this naturally led her to the Zero Waste lifestyle, beginning her journey 3 years ago. Since then she has fully embraced it, opening a Zero Waste stall Bare Necessities Ireland with her best friend and accomplice Mies Stam. She also holds workshops and talks about living greener as well as being one half of Wildflower Walks Ireland teaching people the value of our native flora.
Christmas Endy Bits and What to Do with Them
One of the great things about Christmas is that everyone expects to eat the leftovers. The aim of this workshop is to provide you with ideas and tips to avoid food waste this holiday season and to help you elevate your endy bits from drudgery to deliciousness.
The workshop is hosted by Anne Hession from The Endy Bit, who believes avoiding food waste doesn’t have to mean frugal food - it can lead to new experiences of deliciousness. Take a culinary journey with the Endy Bit.
Vegetarian Alternatives for Christmas
If you want to try Christmas food with a twist and make vegetarian food a proper start of the big day, join us for a talk, discussion and demonstration (= free yummy food) on vegetarian options for a Christmas dinner hosted by Aaron Jewell from Permascape.
Permascape is a permaculture design and project management consultancy. They help people to restore, renew and replenish their land. They work within a design thinking/design planning process, making sure that all aspects are working in accordance to holistic management while following natural patterns.