Up & Away was an environmental campaign aimed at encouraging families to reduce waste through upcycling. Upcycling is defined as the conversion of waste into a product of higher value and quality in its next cycle. The campaign’s primary and secondary target audience were parents and children (aged 7 to 9) respectively.

Over the course of the campaign, four different themes of upcycling were explored – namely craft, food waste, textile and wood. Up & Away reached out to their target audiences through social media, campaign’s website and different community outreach events.

The team visited two primary schools, St Joseph’s Institution Junior and Raffles Girls’ Primary School, to conduct recess booth activities for four weeks. At these recess booth activities, students took home an upcycled product and an online instruction link on how to make this within the comforts of their own home. The team hoped to increase communication between parents and children by first sparking the children’s interest in upcycling which hopefully would result in conversations with their parents.

To engage parents, the team posted regular updates on the campaign’s social media (Facebook) page, as well as organise three upcycling workshops and a Closing Event at Cairnhill Community Centre.

The Highlights

Up & Away managed to reach out to 2,215 participants during the course of the campaign and garnered 710 likes on the campaign’s Facebook page. All community events were over-subscribed and participants were actively engaged in upcycling activities.

In particular, the team’s Closing Event – UP Fest, reached out to approximately 899 participants. During the event, there were 20 participating booths and five free upcycling workshops. There were also performances by various activity groups from Cairnhill Community Centre.

Watch the highlights of UP Fest below:

The Memories

A mother and daughter team enjoying themselves at the T-Shirt Bag upcycling workshop held at Cairnhill Community Centre.

Students at Raffles Girls Primary School at the team’s second recess booth session – learning about textile upcycling and making their own iron-on patches from old textile materials.

Participants learning how to make eco-enzyme (an organic detergent) from fruit peels, water and sugar.

A team member helping the young participant make his own zipper pouch from food packaging.

Upcycling wood workshop conducted by a representative from Touchwood, a craft arm of Ground-Up-Initiative. Participants learnt how to de-nail wood pallets and took home their own signages!

Reflection #1 – The Challenges

Challenges with young children being the target audience

From the team’s experiences at outreach events, they noticed that secondary target audience of children aged 7 to 9 have limited cognitive abilities and shorter attention span due to their young age. Hence, the children may not fully grasp the idea of upcycling and understand what they are doing during the upcycling activities.

Difficult to get participants for our upcycling contest

The upcycling contest period was too short (ie. one month). Hence, it was difficult to get people to participate in the contest. Furthermore, the period also coincide with Lunar New Year, making it even more unlikely for people to join the contest.

Reflection #2 – The Takeaways

Great turnout for various on-ground events (recess booths, workshops and final event)

The team managed to educate and engage 1,198 pupils in upcycling activities through the recess booths. At the workshops held at Cairnhill Community Centre, there were 39 parent-child pairs, and six of these attended all three workshops planed by the team. At the UP Fest, there was also an overwhelming response of 899 attendees and 62 workshop participants.

Strong support from our partners and interest from various environmentally-friendly groups

The team has successfully collaborated with nine upcycling partners throughout the course of their campaign. These partners have aided them in their formative research, providing expertise on the topic, running of recess booths and community workshops, prize sponsorships as well as participating at UP Fest as upcycling vendors. Their partners were key in ensuring that the campaign run smoothly and effectively.

In addition, the campaign also garnered the interest of potential collaborators such as the Income Eco Run and World Wildlife Federation’s Earth Hour 2018. The team was invited by these groups to run workshops and booths at their events to spread their message to the masses.