Cantiere Circolare: When Creative Reuse Becomes a Way of Doing School
In November, we guided 18 kindergarten teachers from the City of Turin and its province on a small yet significant journey into creative reuse. The program was born at the Remida Center in Turin, as part of Crescere in città (City of Turin – ITER), with a very simple goal: to understand how sustainability can become part of everyday school life—not as an “extra task,” but as a new way of looking at the world around us.
From materials to perspectives: what happened in the three workshops
Cantiere Circolare unfolded over three three-hour sessions, alternating reflections, hands-on activities, and moments of exchange.
In the first session, we focused on everyday gestures: where does waste come from? What are we already doing well? From this conversation, the Map of Sustainable Practices was born, a shared tool that makes visible the habits, solutions, and insights already present in schools.
The second session explored the life cycle of objects and led to the design of four replicable practices:
- The Reuse Materials Corner
A small, always-accessible area where children can explore unconventional materials: cardboard, caps, fabrics, tubes, plastic pieces, and clean scraps from Remida or families. Not a “craft storage,” but a living space where children can choose, combine, build, and imagine. It encourages creative freedom and responsibility. - Sharing Is Caring
A practice involving children and families with a simple gesture: bringing items to school that are no longer needed but can be useful to others—books, toys, materials, and small objects that find a second life. Sharing becomes an opportunity to talk about value, choice, abundance, and limits, building a more attentive and generous community. - Repairing Is Caring
A table, a few simple tools, and materials to recombine: torn paper, broken toys, small pieces to put back together. The goal is not perfect repair, but educating children in care, patience, and the chance to try and try again. Defects become opportunities to cultivate attention, patience, and responsibility. - Measuring Waste A routine for the classroom or canteen, observe how much we waste and turn it into a game of awareness. How much food is left over? How much paper do we use each day? How much water flows from the taps? The purpose is not to blame, but to transform numbers into questions, and questions into shared solutions.
These four simple but powerful ideas transform waste into a resource, foster autonomy and creativity, and bring children and families closer to a culture of care.
The third session was a full immersion into the world of Remida. Teachers explored the materials warehouse, listened to the center’s philosophy, and connected everything we had experimented with in the previous weeks. We concluded with a reflection circle, a collective feedback session, and the promise to meet again and continue this working group.
Why Cantiere Circolare was special
Feedback showed one clear trait: teachers want more hands-on practice—more materials to touch, more time to experiment, more opportunities to plan together. Above all, they want a permanent space to continue exchanging ideas, doubts, and experiences.
Cantiere Circolare was special because it reminded us that sustainability is not about grand revolutions but small gestures, consistency, and coherence over time. Even a torn piece of paper can teach something. Creativity comes from mistakes, from care, from seeing a “defective” object as a possibility. And most importantly, when teachers sit in a circle and start sharing, ideas emerge that no one could have developed alone.
It was wonderful to see the group grow session after session, to share without judgment, and to design new creative and circular practices together. And as we took the last photo, it became clear: this was only the beginning.
We look forward to seeing many of you at the next Cantiere!
