As part of Reuse Month, we hosted two events also in the Dublin Food Coop alongside the Library of Things. On October 7th Max Moribley and Claire Downey hosted The Fix Jam, their team helped 35 people repair their broken and damaged things. It was so much fun to watch everything being repaired and seeing how easy it is to just get something fixed instead of throw away!
October 14th was all about clothes and garment upcycling, Deborah Tormey from Attention Attire gave workshops showing people how to make accessories like phone covers and wallets from rescued festival camping gear. Carrie Kinahan showed people how to turn their old t-shirts into new tote bags, which came in very useful for the Swapsies clothes swap hosted by Clodagh Kelly, an expert in slow fashion.
Reuse Month has been a great buzz of activity all over the country. It is truly inspiring to see people embrace the sharing and circular economy, moving away from single use and throw-away to reuse, repair, swapping and sharing. We hope this trend continues and spreads, with our natural resources and environment under threat we really need to rethink how we use and value goods.
In addition to the events, for this year’s ReUse Month we teamed up with WeShare, Share City and the Dublin Food Coop to pilot Ireland’s first Library of Things. Initially we wanted to test the water, see how the public would respond to the idea and see what challenges need to be overcome in setting it up. We thought, if we can make it work we might inspire people all across Ireland to set up sharing spaces similar to what’s currently happening over in the UK.
An old shed that was no longer in use was spruced up thanks to ReCreate and re-homed in the Dublin Food Coop, it has been part of the Coop’s daily life since October 1st. The Library is run by a team of volunteers and is open to the public every Thursday evening, and Saturday’s and Sunday’s from 11-4pm. We now have 45 members and a total of 150 items to borrow from the library. We have received such a great selection of items, from manual lawnmowers and other DIY tools to baking equipment, art supplies, sports equipment, musical instruments and camping gear. We also have quite a good selection of books, records and DVD’s.
We have just two weeks left for the library of things, we’re not quite sure what will happen after Reuse Month but we would love to see it continue either in the Dublin Food Coop or for it to find another permanent home. Please pop in to see it for yourself or get in touch for more info, we are happy to support communities around Ireland in setting up their own sharing initiatives. To keep up to date with the Library of Things please follow the project on Facebook.
Images: The Library of Things team and volunteers.
