Anyone who visits UpSew regularly will know I’ve long been preoccupied by the sheer volume of textile waste moving through Galway’s charity shops. After the Fashion Revolution talk April 2025, the statistics hit even harder — between 60–80% of donated textiles go unsold, often because they’re damaged, poor quality, or simply out of season. These unsold items are exported for “textile recycling”, but most cannot actually be recycled and ultimately end up dumped.

Since September 2025, I’ve been working with St Vincent de Paul Galway to explore what can be saved from this waste stream. I sort through their “recycle bags” and pull out any good‑quality textiles I can. These materials are now being reused in workshops and in small design experiments, and through this work the purpose of Agus Arís has evolved.

Agus Arís is now becoming a pilot for a local circular hub — a space to explore creative reuse, repair culture, and practical sustainable‑living initiatives for Galway. It’s a way to test how we can reuse textile waste locally and how we can support a more sustainable city through community learning, repair skills, and shared resources.

Updates will be posted www.instagram.com/agusaris.ie and I will document the process on my blog here in ‘workroom notes’