The Environment
The maker-space movement is part of a progressive shift to a more environmentally responsible society. When people make things locally, and sell them within their own community, it reduces fossil fuel freight, a significant contributor to global climate change.
And it goes deeper than that. The fossil fuel economy is driven by consumption of material objects. When objects are made with enjoyment by ‘participants’ rather than simply ‘consumers’, attitudes to consumption and the material world change. We pay for the quality of our experiences, for the beauty of both the process and the end result.
We want to support this transition towards sustainable living in everything we do. At Turning Earth we put our relationship with our environment first. This creates some challenges and we are continually striving for improvement:
Waste: We do what we can to limit waste in the studio. We have a three bucket cleaning system to reduce the amount of water that goes through the studio during daily use.
We reclaim and recycle as much clay as we can. We restrict the use of toxic substances within the studio.
- We ask you to reclaim and recycle your own clay to reduce pressure on the studio systems.
- The vitrification of clay in the kilns is an irreversible process. It is wasteful to send things through the kilns if you have no use for them, both in terms of energy and materials. We ask that you only fire items that you want to keep.
