photo Mikołaj Tym

A new initiative by Interzero and Mama Projekt – the Turning Point educational center in fashion and the fight against greenwashing

We live fast, we produce fast, we consume fast. Fast fashion wins hearts and achieves high profits, regardless of the social and environmental consequences. Every year, 92 million tons of textile waste goes to landfills, and only 1% is recycled. At the same time, for young people, appearance and fashion are a means of expressing themselves and building their identity. How to find your way in a world where producers often pull the wool over our eyes with ecological slogans and countless marketing techniques bombard us with their messages? EkoCentrum Punkt Zwrotny comes to the rescue – the place where change begins.

About fast fashion at FSO

The main theme of the Turning Point is the impact of fast fashion and packaging on the natural environment. The topics and methods of conducting innovative educational activities have been tailored to the interests of young people. Thanks to an engaging narrative, learning through discovery and solving puzzles, teenagers gain practical knowledge of ecology.

– The opening of the ecological education center in the former FSO car factory is a symbol of the green transformation taking place around us. As the Interzero Group, we focus on our pro-environmental activities, primarily on limiting the waste of natural resources, closing the raw material cycle and waste management. Our ambition related to ecological education is to talk about civilization challenges in an accessible, engaging and interesting way. The Turning Point, of which we are a patron and partner, is an example of this. I am very glad that we could get involved in this initiative – says Monika Grom, vice-president of the Interzero Group in Poland.

Mysterious rooms

There are four themed rooms in the Turning Point. One of them was substantively developed by Interzero experts. After entering it, visitors receive a message from the future and a garbage sorting task. The main goal of this part of the story is to present the impact of proper waste segregation on recycling and closing the circulation of packaging and raw materials.

– At the Turning Point, we create fashion for ecology. We do this through activating teaching methods that have proven successful in previous projects implemented together with Mama Projekt, such as the Ekoeksperymentarium exhibition or online games. This time we are setting off into the near future, showing today the reasons why textiles will be covered by the selective waste collection system from 2025. We want to educate through experience and thus change behavior, stimulating reflection and responsible attitudes, which is why the slogan of the Turning Point is “You are the change” – says Katarzyna Kacz, manager of educational projects for children and youth at the Interzero Group.

In each of the four thematic rooms of the Turning Point, groups of students look for answers to questions related to the environmental consequences of the activities of the clothing industry. After completing all the tasks, they meet with the animator in a special dialogue zone, where they discuss the conclusions from this journey through the world of fashion and packaging.

– Reports claim that young people have heard about climate change, but do not have sufficient knowledge and tools to understand its consequences, which is why they often adopt a passive attitude towards this phenomenon. “If I have to die anyway, let it be in fashionable shoes,” one teenager told us during interviews. This was the impulse to create an alternative form of ecological education. Game play, cooperation, good graphics, multimedia and expert knowledge provided in an interactive form are the ingredients of the recipe for Turning Point. We have been designing innovative tools for ecological education for 10 years, and creating an interactive EcoCentrum was Mama Projekt’s biggest dream. Come by and see for yourself how it turned out – invites Małgosia Żmijska from the Mama Projekt collective.

EkoCentrum Punkt Zwrotny is located at ul. Jagiellońska 88, in the former FSO gate (currently FSO Park). Registration for free workshops is available via the website www.punktzwrotny.com . On weekends, it will host less waste workshops, inspiring meetings and clothes exchanges. It is also possible to rent the EkoCentrum space.

It’s time for the Turning Point! 🚀🌱 Welcome!