Reverse Garbage
Kiddley reader Barbara wrote in to let us know about Reverse Garbage co-ops. Reverse Garbage collects high quality industrial materials that would otherwise end up as landfill and sells them at a low price to the general public. The Marrikville co-op in NSW collects the equivalent of one swimming pool in volume of material every week. Reverse Garbage can be a boon for artists, tinkerers, and makers, and as Barbara notes, it’s an excellent place to source materials for kid-craft.
Burke’s Backyard has a listing of Reverse Garbage co-ops around Australia and the Brisbane co-op will mail barrels of material around the country. For readers outside of Australia, do you have similar co-op schemes where you are? If so, let us know in the comments so that others in your area can find out about them.
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i love reverse garbage. i havent been back in a year, but with christmas coming up it will be a good time to head back to get some crafting restarted.
deborah November 10th, 2006 14:47
Here are some U.S. programs: http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/reuse/Links/Art.htm
jennifer November 10th, 2006 15:50
I go to the Marrickville centre all the time – lots of cool scraps, paper, mags, buttons and more!! its fun going through everything!
Anastasia November 10th, 2006 15:55
There’s a little store like that at the Boston Children’s Museum.
Kate November 10th, 2006 23:12
Another good source is http://www.freecycle.org . While their main focus is keeping items out of the landfills, I’ve seen a lot of arts & crafts supplies, kids’ clothes, and toys go out on freecycle as the kids get too old for them! It is a super resource for moms.
RaynDragon November 11th, 2006 02:00
In Vancouver, BC, Canada:
http://www.urbansource.bc.ca/prod.html
3126 Main Street
Bonnie November 30th, 2006 10:05
Habitat for Humanity runs a shop (called the Re-Store) near me that allows people to donate all kinds of extra new or used materials. I’ve found lots of neat things from paint to tile there. They even had the marble from our city hall when it was remodeled.
Sistina December 2nd, 2006 08:37