In the News

The Circular Classroom is proud to be featured in The Straits Times! 

The Circular Classroom’s Upcycling Journey and Changkat Primary’s 60th Anniversary Project 7 July 2025 The Circular Classroom is proud to be featured in The Straits Times spotlighting our most recent event with Changkat Primary School for its 60th anniversary, showcasing end products of a large scale upcycling project. 

With initiative and guidance from The Circular Classroom, the school community upcycled 2,000 old school uniforms into 1,400 handmade items– including cutlery pouches, tissue holders, pencil cases, stuffed owls and more. The products were gifted to guests or auctioned with proceeds going towards the supporting of educational programs. 

Every one of Changkat’s 1,000 pupils received a donated uniform to dismantle at home—just like nine-year-old Kaelyn Ore—then brought the fabric scraps back for community sewing sessions. This hands-on project addressed the startling statistic that 86 percent of school uniforms end up as waste, while teaching art, craft and circular-economy principles. 

Through these collective efforts, we not only created 1,400 unique keepsakes for visitors and supporters at the July 5 celebration, but also ignited eco-stewardship in the next generation. The Circular Classroom’s vision, founded by Leonie Nagarajan and Zinobia Tinwala, aims to tackle textile waste in schools, where 86% of uniforms are discarded or donated. T

heir collaboration with CKPS began in 2023 and has since grown into a model for circular education. As Nagarajan puts it: ‘Kids wear their uniforms all day– they need to see them as valuable resources.’ Most uniforms are made of polyester, which can last for centuries. This initiative helped students and families rethink waste, value and creativity. 

Read the full story on The Straits Times website here.

A big thanks to Love91.2 where Leelian Chua feature us as part of Cai Cai Guo, a weekly sustainability segment.  

Leelian reached out to learn more about our work - and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to share our story and vision moving onwards with her listeners. The short podcast highlights how our workshops give new life to pre-loved school uniform materials - making waste textiles into creative learning tools whilst converting them to meaningful products.  The Circular Classroom is doing more than just up-cycling activities - sustainability is not just an environmental issue, but a creative, critical and collective process.

Listen to the Podcast here.

The CNA journalist Tay Suan Chian covers stories about women from all walks of life who are active in the social, environmental or economic sector in Singapore and contribute to societal development.

Published on 26 December 2024, her article about The Circular Classroom was a nice Christmas surprise. We met Tay Suan Chian during one of our workshops at THK Active Ageing Centre @ Kaki Bukit, when we created Christmas wreaths with the seniors made of pre-loved school uniforms.

The article is about our early beginnings at Changkat Primary School, gives insights into our collaborations with different schools across Singapore and how we connect pre-loved school uniforms with intergenerational learning and sharing.

Read the article here.

We were proud to be part of the Neufolk Design Pavilion by Nathan Yong during the Singapore Design Week from 26 September to 6 October 2024. 

The Neufolk Pavilion was set up at Millenia Walk, Great Hall. The design reminded of century-old traditions and craftsmanship and was built with sustainable sources of wood. Together with other exhibitors, we showcased our innovative materials and products that are driven by sustainability and tradition. You can find more info about the Neufolk Design Pavilion here.

On 29 September 2024, we also ran a sustainability workshop for about 20 people and demonstrated how sustainability can be incorporated into  daily life. The participants - between 8 to 60 years old - created a Circular Classroom owl plushie as well as decorated drawstring bags with hand-sown flowers. 

Some of the other designers that showcased their works at the Neufolk Design Pavilion were: Semula Pte Ltd, Ferticlay, Bewilder, Ayer Ayer Project, LASALLE College of the Arts, Arup and more.

Read an article about the Singapore Design Week, Neufolk Pavilion and our participation in Tamil Murasu, Singapore's leading Tamil newspaper here.