Community Resources Network Ireland CRNI

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Community Resources Network Ireland (CRNI) is the all-island network for community reuse, recycling and waste prevention organisations.

Registered Charity No. 20077259.

20/10/2026

Reuse starts at home, and social enterprises across the country bring it to local communities!

Some of the most powerful reuse happens in our own wardrobes and fridges. It could be rewearing that old jumper with a different outfit than usual to get more use out of it, or finishing the leftovers before heading out for the weekly shop.

Some of our members are doing exactly this at a much bigger scale, bringing more people in, raising awareness and making an impact in their communities.

Clothes, amongst other things, takes donated clothes and turns them into whole new outfits. Watch the video to see an example.

FoodCloud does the fridge-clearing on a national scale. They redistribute good surplus food to family resource centres, homeless services, Meals on Wheels groups and more, where it becomes meals, pantry shelves and sharing tables.

The principle is the same: nothing useful should go to waste, whether it’s a jumper or a jar of pasta sauce.

What’s your favourite reuse habit at home? Tell us!

16/10/2026

Meet Lucy, Head of Sustainability at We Make Good.
Lucy and the team at We Make Good have been working on the social inclusion of people from marginalised backgrounds through textiles repairs and alterations.
👉 Swipe to read her full Circular Story.

14/10/2026

We’re already halfway through Reuse Month, so it’s about time we talked repair, as this Saturday October 17th is International Repair Day 🔧

Repair is fixing something that’s broken so you can keep using it, instead of binning it and buying new. It’s a way of reusing and giving materials and items another life, sometimes in ways you’d never expect. Repair and reuse keep useful things in circulation, save money, cut waste and pass on practical skills.

Swipe through to read some repair stories from our friends at - Dublin Hackerspace!

Next time something breaks, ask: can I fix it, or could it become something new?
Got something broken at home? Look out for a repair café or event near you this weekend!

08/10/2026

Happy World Circular Textiles Day to all who celebrate!

All over the world, people are celebrating a textiles industry that keeps materials in use instead of sending them to landfill. At CRNI, we're using this day in Reuse Month to ask a bigger question: you can reuse THAT? 👀

Swipe to meet three CRNI members who are turning end-of-life products into something useful:

🧵 CycleUp gives unwanted materials a second life by transforming them into new, useful products. Since 2019, they have diverted more than eight tonnes of textiles from waste.

🎨 NCE Northside Community Enterprises collects, sorts and remixes leftover paint so it can be used again. In 2026 alone, they have already supported 90+ community projects in Cork.

📦 Green Bubble shows that packaging doesn't have to be single-use. Over 22,000m² of bubble wrap has been kept out of the bin so far.

Different materials, same question: how can I keep these materials and resources useful?

Which of these surprised you most?

07/10/2026

Across the Southern waste region, reuse and repair initiatives are fixing, sharing and keeping good things in use every day.
We brought our members from the Southern waste region together to discuss how to better show the impact we make together, in a shared way. So that authorities right on our doorstep can’t miss us!

The meeting was hosted in Cork City in the beautiful facilities of NCE Northside Community Enterprises, who took the opportunity to tell us all about Relove Paint and their impressive paint reuse system in the region.

We also caught up on the shared issues of funding, staffing and space - a common thread between all our members nowadays, and all things that can benefit from a shared approach.

Thank you to Northside Community Enterprises for hosting, and to everyone who brought their ideas and energy!

02/10/2026

October is Reuse Month ♻️

Reuse means keeping products and materials in use for longer, rather than throwing them away and replacing them. That could be repairing something, buying second-hand, donating, swapping, sharing or upcycling.

Why reuse?
Ireland generated 15.7 million tonnes of waste in 2022.
Our reuse rate in 2024 was 15.5 kg per person.
The national target is 20 kg per person per year by 2030.
Reuse sits near the top of the waste hierarchy, ahead of recycling, because it saves the resources and energy that go into making things in the first place. It also creates local jobs, training and affordable goods for communities across Ireland.

Throughout the month of October, we'll be highlighting some of the people and organisations making reuse happen across Ireland!

What does reuse mean to you? Tell us 👇

28/09/2026

What has 20 wheels, loves to discuss the challenges facing the bike repair sector in Ireland and was spotted going from one end of Cork City to another?
Yes, it’s the participants of our last bikes Community of Practice! 🚲🚲

A few weeks ago, we brought together our bike members and some other bike community initiatives or social enterprises, to discuss all things wheels and cycling.
When holding these meetings, the one overarching conclusion is that collaboration is useful and needed. Challenges such as funding, facilities, insurance - they’re all shared and can benefit from a shared approach.

Thank you to Cork Community Bikes and Deaf Enterprises for hosting and facilitating a day of learning and exchange, and to CRNI members for participating!

22/09/2026

Last week we swapped our desks for a room full of inspiring circular economy champions at the Circular.ie Full Circle Awards!

Huge congrats to our members who were finalists: The Upcycle Movement (Creative Circular Design), Circular Dress Collaborative (Repair and Reuse Champion), and a massive round of applause for Clonmel Repair Café, who took home the Community Circular Champion award!

It was a great opportunity to get recognition for everyone’s hard work within the sector, but also to connect with like-minded people and hear more about truly impressive projects from all over.

11/09/2026

Where are Ireland’s discarded textiles going? 🧵

Community Resources Network Ireland (CRNI) welcomes the publication of NATEX 2.0 (Nature and Extent of Textiles consumption and postconsumer Textiles). This research provides an important new evidence base on how textiles are consumed, collected, reused and managed across Ireland.

The findings underline the scale of the challenge.

Around 160,000 tonnes of post-consumer textiles were generated in Ireland in 2023, approximately 31kg per person. Ireland remains among the highest consumers of textiles in Europe, and around 70% of post-consumer textiles were discarded as waste.

There are, however, encouraging signs of growth in reuse and separate collection.

Almost one third of post-consumer textiles entered separate collection streams, helping to support reuse and circularity. Charity retailers collected approximately 29,191 tonnes in 2023, which is around 18% of all post-consumer textiles generated. This represents significant growth from the approximately 10% recorded in the first NATEX study.

The contribution of community-based organisations and charity retail to actual reuse is even more significant. NATEX describes charity retail as the “primary driver of domestic reuse”, estimating that at least 14,594 tonnes of textiles were reused through charity retail in 2023.

CRNI members Charity Retail Ireland and Change Clothes also feature in the report, highlighting the vital role played by charity retail, clothes swapping and community-led reuse in keeping textiles in use for longer.

As Ireland develops its circular textiles system, CRNI believes we need:

• Greater investment in reuse and repair
• Stronger support for community organisations and social enterprises
• Better data on where textiles go and what happens to them
• Demand-side measures that address overconsumption and extend product lifetimes

Ireland already has a strong network of community organisations and social enterprises delivering practical circular solutions. The opportunity now is to build a system that enables these organisations to grow, scale their impact and become an integral part of Ireland’s textiles economy.

This is particularly important as Ireland develops Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for textiles.

CRNI has consistently argued that EPR should strengthen, rather than displace, existing reuse infrastructure; prioritise reuse and preparation for reuse ahead of recycling; and ensure that the genuine costs of collecting, sorting and preparing textiles for reuse are properly recognised and supported.

The NATEX 2.0 findings reinforce that message: Ireland already has a functioning reuse sector. The next step is to invest in it.

10/09/2026

Do you own clothes? Then you should know this.

Ireland is developing a Textiles Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme, which will change how clothing and other textiles are collected, reused and recycled from 2028. Almost 45 percent of CRNI's membership is already active in this sector, working across reuse, repair and recycling.

We have submitted our response to the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment's consultation on the Textiles EPR Delivery Plan, and our message is simple: this scheme cannot meet its legal waste hierarchy obligations without a strong value-retention system, and that means recognising and resourcing the organisations already doing this work.

Our submission calls, amongst other things, for community reuse organisations and social enterprises to be recognised as delivery partners rather than just stakeholders, full cost coverage so charities are not left subsidising producers' obligations, reuse-first access to textile streams before materials go to recycling or export, and mandatory representation for the sector on the governance of the Producer Responsibility Organisation.

Read our full submission on our website.

Address

The Tara Building, 11-15 Tara Street, Dublin 2
Rathmines
D02RY83

Website

http://www.crni.ie/

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