Trash turned to treasure at market facility

REDUCE, reuse and recycle is a growing trend in the South East, as highlighted by the Mount Gambier ReUse Market which has been embraced by the community.

With over 500 people visiting the Eucalypt Drive facility each open day – held bi-monthly – ReUse Market coordinator Rebecca Mobbs said she was pleased with public uptake.

“Since opening we have been doing upwards of 250 invoices each day,” she said.

“We think the foot traffic would be significantly higher as well.

“Today (Wednesday) has been a great turn out and we had hundreds of people through the doors.”

Bargains galore are on offer with bric-a-brac, garden tools, books, records, building items and much more available for purchase.

ReUse Market and waste transfer station attendant Tanis Alexander said electronics and outdoor equipment had seen the biggest turnover of stock.

“Tools have also been popular,” she said.

“The whole aim of the market is to keep items from going to landfill and we seem to be successfully doing that.”

Ms Alexander said she was surprised at what does sell.

“It really does not matter what it is that is on offer,” she said.

“We may think it might not sell, but it does.

“It is just unbelievable what people buy.”

Ms Mobbs said careful consideration had gone into the market’s operation, including its limited opening times.

“Providing it is in a reusable condition, anything people are finished with will arrive here at the ReUse Market,” she said.

“The idea is to recover as much as we can from the waste stream at the waste transfer station and then refurbish, restore, clean and present the items for reuse.

“Most of the time is spent recovering the items at the waste transfer station, open seven days a week, weekdays 7.30am to 12pm and weekends 2pm to 5pm.”

Ms Mobbs said the key mission was to stop unnecessary items from being wasted.

“One man’s trash in another man’s treasure, definitely,” she said.

“We want to keep our mission in perspective and make sure we are giving our rate payers an investment.

“It is about decreasing an environmental issue.”

Ms Mobbs thanked Independent Learning Centre volunteers for their productive involvement with the project.

“They have been involved for a long time and were the initial recoverers before our team was established,” she said.

“They are also responsible for a lot of the shelving we use making the palette racks in our recovery shed.

“All are learning a lot while being involved with this project.”

Located at 3 Eucalypt Drive, the ReUse Market is open one Wednesday and Saturday each month with the next opening dates March 13 and March 23 from 10am to 1pm.

“Not getting ahead of ourselves but we may be able to grow from here on in,” Ms Mobbs said.

“It is truly early stages at the moment but we are receiving positive feedback which is great to hear.

“We invite people to follow us on our social media platforms to keep up to date with related information.”