Big Wins for Recycled Materials at Cashel St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Zero Waste Cashel Sponsor Best Use of Recycled Materials in St Patricks Day Parade

In keeping with the ‘Keep it Green’ theme of this years Cashel St. Patrick’s Day Parade a new category was introduced and sponsored by Zero Waste Cashel. The new category ‘Best Use of Recycled Materials’ was won by the Lawrence Academy Dance Company (LADC) who received a trophy and €100. In the true spirit of zero waste the parade organisers sourced the trophy from a recycling shop.

This year LADC performed a new piece choreographed for this years theme Keep it Green’. The routine featured dancers from age 8 to 22 and was based on Reducing, Reusing and Recycling. It included a special feature of one of the LADCs students Emily from Tipperary Town who handmade a dress from all recycled products, it is made from mint sweets, plastic bags and break fluid piping. The Dress is a chandelier called Eclipse and was created for the Bank of Ireland Junk Couture Fashion Competition. The dress represents how beauty is created by recycling and how if we teach our children to look after our World, it will be a better place.

Zero Waste Cashel Project Manager, Derry O Donnell said “We felt it was important to acknowledge the use of recycled materials in creating costumes and floats in the parade. The more that people reuse items the better for everyone. We hope that by sponsoring this award that future parade entrants will consider using recycled materials in the future and that other parade committees will be inspired by Cashel’s lead. I must also commend the parade committee for their initiative in providing a tree to every child who took part in the parade”

Knockavilla N.S. the overall parade winners, also used recycled materials in their entry. The Children of Scoil Mhuire National School are very conscious of the ecosystem and the environment . Their theme “Don’t BEE Mean BEE Green” was inspired by a visit from their Local Bee Keeper. The children were made aware of the importance of Bee’s in our ecosystem and through pollination are responsible for a third of everything we eat and play a vital role in sustaining the planet’s ecosystem.

A strong culture of recycling is encouraged at home and in the school. The children saved all recyclables’ over previous weeks. The Beehives were made from old newspapers, the Flying Bees were from decorated plastic bottles. The surrounding Multicoloured Flowers were made from plastic bottles, cut and painted by the children. The BEE Wings the children wore were made from old wire clothes hangers and used tights.

Winners of the Best Walking Entry trophy, The Cashel Arts Festival in collaboration with the Scouts also used recycled materials & upgraded old props for their entry which took inspiration from the poem “The Lake Isle of Inisfree”

“Towards Zero Waste Cashel” is an 18-month pilot initiative which promotes reducing waste and repairing and repurposing items. Led by environmental charity VOICE, funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and supported by the Southern Region Waste Management Office and Tipperary County Council, this pioneering new project aims to take a typical Irish town on a journey of change.

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