Sustainable Living Festival: Learning how to live 'circular' today

'Going Circular' is the theme of this year's Sustainable Living Festival, an initiative by the Tamar Natural Resource Management, to be held on March 2.

The festival covers a range of topics and activities such knitting, composting and fermentation as well as upcycled fashion parades and test-driving electric vehicles.

Tamar NRM program coordinator Nick Flittner hopes the festival encourages people to broaden their thinking of sustainability.

"It's about all the things we need to do now, beyond just simple recycling or doing the standard stuff - we need to rethink how we design things.

"There's a whole mind shift that needs to happen not just within the industry, but within individuals as well," Mr Flittner said.

Festival coordinator Sandy Astill wants the event to foster interest in the community and our surrounding environment.

"We want to encourage people to start doing things within their community," she said.

"If you don't have a strong community spirit, you won't worry much about what's happening around you. But if you feel really connected to your community, you start to be concerned about what you see and you'll do something about it."

There will be five stages running presentations throughout the day, with various speakers and forums to listen to.

"We've got a youth forum where we're listening to the voices of primary school children and what they would like to see for the future, and the ideas that they have," Ms Astill said.

"We want the voices of the kids in the morning to actually filter into the afternoon, into the serious side of things. Because kids are our future.

"No matter what you're interested in, there should be something that you can have a go at."

Mr Flittner said it's about people leaving the festival and being able to apply their newfound knowledge in a "practical sense", and remembering their Rs: rethink, repurpose, recycle, reuse, remanufacture.

Headlining this year's festival is television personality, comedian and environmental advocate from the ABC's War on Waste, Craig Reucassel.

"Craig himself has been really instrumental in making the word 'circular' a household name, and we're so honoured to have him," Ms Astill said.

The Sustainable Living Festival will be held March 2, 10am-4pm at the Tramsheds Function Centre and Inveresk Precinct. Entry is free. For more information visit https://www.tamarnrm.com.au/festival.