Budding WA creatives inspired by Daisy pool cover offcuts
Daisy donates its pool cover offcuts to not-for-profit REmida WA to reduce its environmental footprint.
The old saying ‘one man’s trash, is another man’s treasure’ is certainly a proven truth in the re-use industry.
Over the last year Daisy donated each month a truckload full of pool cover offcuts and material to REmida WA, a not-for-profit education centre that collects clean and safe resources from local manufacturers which are used for childhood education, to enable imagination to blossom in a learning environment.
Daisy’s donations have ranged from pool cover offcuts and cardboard tubing to tie strings and rope spools. According to REmida WA General Manager Eden Lennox the vibrant colours and squishy texture of Daisy Pool Cover offcuts make them one of REmida’s top five most popular collected items. They are child safe, tactile and feel good for the kids!
Ms Lennox added that pool covers are always well liked and creatively reused in play space areas in primary schools, day care centres and at festivals like the Perth Writer’s and Beaufort Street Festivals, as well as at their own creative workshops.
REmida collects discarded materials from a selection of industrial areas around Perth and last year collected a total of 400m2 worth of product.
“We really value Daisy’s contributions – pool covers are an exciting and inspirational product for us and they are perfect because they come in larger shapes and sizes,” Ms Lennox said.
“Daisy represents one of the few industries that have really embraced the recycling aspect of manufacturing. They understand the idea of ‘reuse’ which is important because pool covers are a non-recyclable product that would otherwise go to landfill,” she said.
“We are also always well received by Daisy and their staff are always enthusiastic about helping us out which is quite rare, and appreciated as our business is managed by up to about 25 volunteers.”
Daisy Managing Director Derek Prince visited the REmida warehouse this week to find out what goes on behind the scenes of the hardworking collection truck:
“REmida is a great initiative to be involved with as they work tirelessly to turn manufacturing waste into a resource and helping companies like us reduce their environmental footprint – this is what Daisy is passionate about,” Mr Prince said.
“We donate all we can and recycle most of the waste we generate as well,” he said.
“REmida’s group of volunteers are so dedicated to the job and do really well in encouraging community members to reuse discarded material to create something beautiful and I’m glad to be a part of it,” he added.
“Last year’s Beaufort Street Festival peacock and the aquatic diorama created recently by one of our local WA schools were really creative and is satisfying to see our Daisy pool cover offcuts being put to good use!”
Besides pools covers, other top donations include silver tape, rubber blocks, coloured paper products, fabrics, vinyls and cardboard tubes. Among the zaniest items ever received by REmida are 1.3m bear skins and hot pink and bright yellow coloured sticky tubular plastic moulds from injection plastic moulding.
A call out to other manufacturer suppliers! If you are a local manufacturer and have, or know one that has, any industry waste that can potentially be re-used, then please contact REmida WA for a free collection.
Donations are processed, sorted into colours, cut down to useable sizes and displayed in shelving in the REmida warehouse in West Perth so members can see the beauty of the items.
Member teachers and day care carers pay an annual membership fee to gain access to materials at any time. Members tend to adapt and design their classes depending on what’s available at the time.
REmida was founded around the Italian Reggio Emilia Learning philosophy which originated in the Province of Reggio Emilia in Italy where the whole community is involved in the re-use of industry products. REmida is mostly involved with alternative thinking schools in WA where the Reggio Emilia philosophy is encouraged in their childhood education curriculum.
The organisation has been involved with at least 160-170 schools since their inception in 2004 and have seen a significant increase in the number of day care centres utilising their service.
