By Geneva Pattison
February 13th-14th will see Dogpatch Labs at Custom House Quay play host to the “HackFastFashion” event in partnership with Dublin City Council and Oxfam Ireland.
The event was created to highlight the negative impact that throw-away culture is truly having on the environment. The ‘hackathon’ is calling all people who want to be able to start getting to the bottom of these problems, to join them for two days of solution-orientated discussions, workshops and eco-based learning.
As relayed on the event page, “a major contributor to the rise of microplastics in our ocean is the fact that the majority of our clothing and fabrics these days go straight to the landfill after a short lifespan.”
Information from the 2015 environmental documentary ‘The True Cost’ revealed that across the entire world we now use over 80 billion pieces of newly-made clothing a year, which is “400% more than we were consuming just two decades ago.”
‘Re-dress’, the Dublin-based initiative behind Better Fashion Week, noted on their website that every year, Ireland throws out around 225,000 tonnes of textile waste. If the majority of textiles sent to landfills in Ireland were recycled, this would reduce the “direct greenhouse gas emissions by over 300,000 tonnes per annum.’’
The goal of this event is to connect like-minded individuals to brainstorm a new startup or NGO, that will work towards creating practical and sustainable alternatives for the fashion and retail industry in Ireland.
Guidance and mentorship will be provided by experts in the field over two days, while you work on innovative new ideas. Your final ideas will be judged by top professionals and leaders in government, with the chance to win prizes.
Tickets for the catered event are available from eventbrite costing €16.87, and the event will take place in Dogpatch Labs in Custom House Quay, Dublin 1.
For further information on the event visit the eventbrite link below:
https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/hackfastfashion-tickets-87796059377
The “HackFastFashion” twitter account: https://twitter.com/HackFastFashio1
Ireland’s textile waste information courtesy of the Re-dress website: http://re-dress.ie/when-fashion-is-finished-garment-end-of-life-solutions/
Further information about “The True Cost” documentary: https://truecostmovie.com/learn-more/environmental-impact/
