Background
The EU and national governments have set objectives for European environmental policy until 2020 and a vision beyond 2050. The 3 Rs (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) are key objectives, including adopting environmentally friendly manufacturing techniques and using less energy for production processes. The textile sector can achieve sustainability using less water, pesticides, fertilizers, and harmful chemicals. Therefore, the project aimed to create learning opportunities for ECO-PRINT for unemployed women and diversify textile products ecologically in Türkiye, North Macedonia, and Poland, focusing on developing innovative fabric products from partner countries. Transferring plant parts, such as flowers, leaves, seeds, underground shoots, twigs, and extracts prepared from these materials on textile materials such as cotton, silk, hemp, and so on, made focusing on more ecological awareness possible.
These objectives align with the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, focusing on climate action, clean energy, sustainability, and lifelong education. This initiative promotes innovative perspectives for disadvantaged individuals and enhances ecological awareness, especially in small, rural settlements lacking industry.
Objectives
In this project, we wanted women participants to;
- increase their consciousness and sustainability thinking of unemployed women about ecological approaches,
- increase their self-confidence and independence through meaningful work,
- inspire them to be empowered by providing them with skills in ecoprinting,
- develop their creativity and innovative sides on unique pieces of fabrics by transferring the forms, shapes, colors, etc., by plant parts of flowers, leaves,
branches, and so on, - teach eco-printing approaches to each other and others.
- emphasize the importance of cross-cultural collaboration and how the project may have brought together diverse ideas and practices
- develop cultural awareness among the participants in all partner countries.
In addition, we wanted to showcase how art and creativity can align with eco-printing approaches and encourage others to rethink their relationship with
nature and art.
Activities
Activity I – Online meetings to gather the partners to give the details about the project and follow up and introduce the representatives to each other for all partners. In this activity, we organized two webinars given by academicians from the partner countries. In the Webinar I, the speakers focused on “Biodiversity and Tree Species Richness”, Sustainability and Forestry”, Environmental Conservation”, Ecological Awareness of Poles”. In the Webinar II, the speakers focused on the “Plant-Based Sustainable Materials”, “Natural Color Pigments”, “Future in Fashion is Circular – Let’s Put an End to Textile Waste”, and “Ecological Products in the Context of Art”. In all the following events, ECO-PRINT techniques were introduced (beating, steaming, and boiling) to apply to different fabrics. Unlike these, particular emphasis was placed on recycling textile products in North Macedonia. In Türkiye, the product range was expanded by applying ECO-PRINT on ceramics. In addition, interaction between participants was improved through cultural exchange activities in all events.
Activity II – Shtip/Skopje in North Macedonia
Activity III – Warsaw in Poland
Activity IV – Kastamonu in Türkiye
Impact
This project increased sustainability thinking and protection of the surrounding environment to make all participants and representatives become more responsible producers and consumers of the consciousness of the environment. Another result of this project was to empower women with fewer career opportunities, increase their entrepreneurial thinking, digital skills, and financial literacy through education, and ensure their participation in social and economic life. Furthermore, the participants had an experience on cultural and historical experiences in each partner country and had international cooperation experience with the Erasmus+ projects.
The participants were taught about the ECO-PRINT techniques to produce eco-printed textile materials and a collection of eco-printed textile products such as scarves, pillows, vanity bags, aprons, tablecloths, runners, etc. Learning these techniques and how to turn fabrics into a textile product helped the participants gain marketable skills. Some participants had already found an opportunity to share their knowledge about eco-printing with the local communities and some young people from other cities of Türkiye.