Key Points
- The Make-Do library of things and the Share Shed are community-run libraries of household items.
- Members can borrow tools, kitchen appliances, gardening items, party gear and recreational items.
- The initiatives save people money and space, reduce landfill and carbon footprints and build a sense of community.
When we want to read a book but don't have a copy, we can borrow one from a library.
This saves people from buying new books each time that may just sit unused for long periods, taking up shelf space.
If we do this with an item of relatively small value, why don't we do it with larger household items?
That was the thought Andrea Persico had back in 2018 when she wanted to dehydrate some fruit and was unable to find someone to lend her a dehydrator.
She thought about how great it would be if, rather than needing to purchase a new appliance, there was a library of things where she could borrow one from, use it and return it the next week so others could also get use out of it.
The items at the Make-Do library of things are those that most people will only use every few months or once a year. Source: Supplied
Having cut down on the number of new items people in the area purchase, it has likely also kept numerous items out of landfill.
Community-run libraries of household items exist in a number of towns and cities across Australia.
What can you borrow?
Persico has moved away from NSW, but the Make-Do library continues to provide a valuable service to the area, with more than 450 loans of items in 2023.
Alice Henchion loves borrowing items when she's having people over or hosting children's birthday parties.
"I get the outdoor lights, we've got sets of wine glasses and cake stands, we've got some big outdoor games like Finska and Jenga, we've got punch bowls. I really love the party stuff, you can get trestle tables and tablecloths and chocolate fountains and popcorn makers. It's some really fun stuff," she said.
Henchion is a volunteer and the co-chair of the Make-Do library and she has been able to get value for the $80 a year she pays to borrow items.
"Whenever we go camping, I make sure I book in the car pod for the roof rack, and I've used the gutter cleaners quite a bit," she said.
"When my mum was visiting, she actually broke her ankle while she was here and we borrowed the wheelchair, which was handy.”
Popular items at the Make-Do, as with the Share Shed, a similar operation in the Perth suburb of Bassendean, are tools and gardening gear.
There have been more than 3,000 loans at the Share Shed in the past 18 months.
READ MORE
What is a circular economy?
Founder Renée McLennan said the focus was "not on items used every day, but items that you use every now and again, so you don't necessarily need to have one each. If you only use it every few months you can just borrow it when you need it."
How do they work?
Both operations are volunteer-run and open for items to be returned and picked up once a week on Saturdays.
People register to borrow items online and generally book them for a window of one or two weeks.
In Perth, a one-hour window is set aside for items to be brought back and the second hour is for items to be collected.
While those in the Illawarra pay an annual fee to borrow items, those in Bassendean have so far been lucky enough to participate in the local sharing arrangement for free thanks to donations of items, a number of successful grants and cooperation from the local government, which provides the facility for the Share Shed to operate from.
Benefits of community sharing
A recent community grant allowed the Make-Do to offer free memberships to students and those with healthcare cards.
Henchion said while the library was in a reasonably "well-to-do" area, she saw huge potential for the impact of similar libraries being set up in lower socio-economic areas.
Both women agreed that the initiatives created a greater sense of community where they lived.
Share Shed founder Renée McLennan says sharing items within the community was an idea that came out of the repair shed that operated in the area. Source: Supplied
"So that when you go to the shop next weekend, and you see that person that you had a conversation with when you came in to borrow something, there's that instant sense of connection and belonging."
McLennan said the Share Shed idea had come out of the suburb's , where people bring household items that may otherwise be discarded and replaced, to be fixed.
"There was a lot of overlap in terms of the underlying ethos around reuse and reducing consumption and creating connected communities," she said.
McLennan said the Share Shed gave people an "alternative to just buying".
"So people could have those communal items that they could share and challenge that whole consumerism, consumption model, but [it's] also about providing access to the things people needed," she said.
Circular economies driving a more sustainable lifestyle
These WA and NSW examples also help to where people make the most of material resources.
"I think we've been a really big part of the shift in thinking that needs to happen about waste," Henchion said.
"It's a big shift in deciding to not just go and buy, but plan ahead.
"If we want to reduce waste, we almost need to move at a slower pace, think, 'Okay, I'm going to do this job,' or, 'I'm going to have this party and I need to reserve these items.' It's not just this fast-paced life of now, now, now, that we've become used to," she said.
However, being volunteer-led means the true value of operations like these is rarely properly measured.
Volunteers put in hours of their time to catalogue items, get them repaired or replaced when need be, oversee loans and returns and work on grant submissions to keep operating.
This has meant neither the Share Shed nor Make-Do library teams have been able to measure their full impact on the reduction of waste or on people's spending and purchasing habits.
Those behind initiatives such as the Share Shed believe a greater sense of community is fostered as a result of the sharing communities. Source: Supplied
Newman said sociologists used the term 'privatism' to describe how modern societies had increasingly operated where "you put people in little boxes that [are] separate".
However, Newman said: "Increasingly, we just have to do this (provide opportunities for community sharing) or we end up in little private bubbles that require enormous resourcing."
Online marketplace Gumtree Australia's Trading in the Circular Economy Report 2022 found 86 per cent of Australians had unwanted and unused items lying around their home.
It revealed most households had about 21 of these types of items in their home, which totalled a value of almost $7,000.
Why aren't there more community libraries of things?
Being volunteer-led also means there are limitations on community sharing initiatives.
"The bulk of us are working parents with young kids and we don’t have huge amounts of time," Henchion said.
She believes the Make-Do library has the potential to be a hub for community-focused workshops and events and to operate a repair cafe, but without funding for a paid staff member, she said volunteers did not have the time and resources.
Securing permanent premises can also be a challenge for not-for-profit groups.
Henchion said the Make-Do library had "struggled for a home", having had to relocate once already.
It is currently co-located with a writers' centre, to which it pays a portion of the rent.
"I really think that local governments should be providing free rents for services like this," she said.
The pandemic also slowed momentum, with the Make-Do library having to remain closed for more than a year.
Henchion would love to see more communities creating similar services.
Those behind the Share Shed have been assisting a couple of other groups in WA to try to get off the ground by sharing information about how they operate and examples of successful grant applications.
