The Bower is the 2009 WINNER of Marrickville Councils Leadership in Sustainability Award

Aim

To operate a re-use center which collects, resells and sometimes repairs goods diverted from the

municipal waste stream and educate the community about waste reduction.

Objectives

• To reduce the amount of hard waste going to landfill

• To raise awareness of the value of waste reduction

• To provide affordable goods to low-income earners and other disadvantaged groups within the

community

• To generate employment opportunities and skills training in the community

• To encourage community awareness of environmentally responsible design and manufacture

• To advocate for long-life design, repairable products and the use of sustainable, recyclable

materials for appliances and furnishings

• To provide benefits to the community via these objectives

• To involve the community in the development and achievement of these objectives

• collect re-usable items from the streets by visiting council cleanup areas, or people can book us to

collect direct from their home. This differs from a lot of other re-use centres that operate as "tip

shops" and scavenge the local dump, but it's really only an adaptation to inner city life where few

people take a load to the dump.

• sell through our re-use centre.

• make minor repairs to furniture, if possible.

• test electrical appliances for safety.

• sell things made from re-used items. These are usually craft or art type pieces, but also unique

• We have an Eco-Library which houses a diverse collection of over 500 books and magazines and other

media for all ages, focusing on conservation, the environment, recycling, sustainability, self-

sufficiency, do-it-yourself crafts, gardening and renovating. All of the building materials used for the

library were either recovered or reused.

• offer a Referral Service if we are unable to accept donations for various reasons. The Referral

Service is supported by 11 councils (Ashfield, Canterbury, Canada Bay, Sydney, Hurstville, Leichhardt,

Marrickville, Randwick, Rockdale, Ryde Waverely, Woollahra) and refers to over 1000 organisations

including charities, secondhand shops, community and recycling services.

• present educational EcoSnapShots (student-actioned audits) for primary and secondary schools on

the benefits of re-use.

• operating our centre with sustainable options, such as strawbale insulated walls with salvaged

doors, windows and trusses; rainwater collection tanks and reused computers, printers, faxes,

phones, shelving, fittings, etc.