VIVES students turn discarded festival banners into laptop sleeves in Kortrijk
Updated: 30 June 2026, 12:00 UTC. KORTRIJK — VIVES students in West Flanders are making laptop sleeves from discarded festival banners, Het Nieuwsblad reported in its regional Kortrijk coverage on 30 June 2026. The project takes a waste stream normally linked to one-off event promotion and turns it into a practical student product. Het Nieuwsblad framed the idea around the claim that almost everything now still goes to the incinerator after use. VIVES says on its official website that the university of applied sciences has more than 20,000 students, seven campuses in West Flanders and a practice-oriented education model. OVAM, Flanders’ public waste agency, says Flemish textile collection rules now cover worn clothing, shoes, sheets and other fabrics, not only reusable clothing. The European Commission says its textile strategy aims for durable, repairable and recyclable products, wider reuse and repair services, and minimal incineration and landfilling by 2030. For readers, the service point is simple: the project is small, but it shows how festivals, schools and local makers can test reuse before paying to dispose of temporary materials.
The direct importance is practical. Festivals and public events use large volumes of temporary banners, flags and promotional material. Het Nieuwsblad’s report shows one local route for keeping some of that material in use. For students and organisers, the case offers a concrete example of reuse that is visible, low-tech and easy to explain.
The subject is a student upcycling initiative at VIVES University of Applied Sciences, centred on making laptop sleeves from discarded festival banners. The main named entities are VIVES, the Kortrijk student community, Het Nieuwsblad as the reporting outlet, OVAM as the Flemish waste authority, and the European Commission as the policy reference for circular textiles.
Background
The broader context is the shift from waste management to circular design. OVAM’s textile guidance shows that Flemish policy already treats worn and non-reusable textiles as a separate collection stream. The European Commission’s 2022 textile strategy places that local change inside a wider EU push to reduce incineration and landfill and increase reuse, repair and recycling.
Impact
Regional — The regional impact is concentrated in Kortrijk and West Flanders, where VIVES has a major student presence and where the project can connect education, event culture and local circular-economy experiments.
Opposing perspectives
- Student makers and circular-design educators
This constituency sees the laptop sleeves as a practical demonstration project. The value is not only the number of sleeves produced, but the proof that a short-lived event material can be redesigned into something useful for daily student life.
- Waste managers and event organisers
This constituency focuses on scale, sorting and cost. OVAM’s guidance shows that collection and processing depend on clear rules, registered handlers and correct separation. A local reuse project works best when organisers plan material recovery before banners are printed and installed.