Two new community initiatives offering the opportunity to borrow everything from chainsaws to party supplies are aiming to reduce waste and bring back the tradition of neighbourhood sharing, ABC News reports.
At the Tools 'n' Things Library in Leederville, Perth, the local community can bypass the hardware store and simply borrow the things they might need around the house, from chainsaws to sewing machines.
"So many people buy things once, just for a small task at home, and then they won't use it again for another couple of years," library volunteer Rex Breheny said.
For an annual fee of $75, members can access the library's 640 items including an array of power tools, gardening equipment and kitchen and cleaning items.
"That's our philosophy — don't buy, borrow," he said.
"Because somebody's done it before you. And then that's cutting down on waste and all the rest of it."
The project is run by volunteers who founded it in 2019, and after an interruption in 2020 with the pandemic, it has now grown to have several hundred members who can come and borrow things twice a week.
With spring gardening in full swing, the library is now particularly busy with people wanting tools.
"Those tools are going out, you know, twice a week, sometimes twice a day, somebody will come and take them out early in the morning on Saturday and bring them back and somebody else will take them out," Mr Breheny said.
He said in a way it was a return to an older tradition of neighbours borrowing each other's lawnmowers and forming connections in the process.
"That used to be quite the philosophy, didn't it?
"You're getting to meet the people in the community, it's great."
FULL STORY
Community libraries that lend things promote neighbourhood sharing and reduced consumption (ABC News)
PHOTO
Rex Breheny volunteer with the Tools 'n' Things libary. (ABC Radio Perth: Emma Wynne)
