NEWS RELEASE
GUELPH TOOL LIBRARY
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The Guelph Tool Library is excited to be working with Habitat for Humanity Guelph-Wellington to bring back Re:Purpose Fest, a free community recycling festival.
Re:Purpose Fest brings together a variety of community initiatives that help repair, re-home, reuse, and recycle household goods. This one day event will take place on Saturday, May 28th from 11 am to 2 pm at 104 Dawson Road (The Guelph ReStore). A full list of accepted items is available on the Guelph Tool Library website.
The Guelph Tool Library is collaborating with over 20 organizations that can recycle or reuse different household items that usually end up in landfill. At the event, representatives from many of the organizations will collect everything from camping gear for the BIPOC Gear Library to mascara wands for the environmental initiative Wands for Wildlife. The event is funded in-part by the City of Guelph and the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
The Guelph Tool Library ran the event for the first time in 2019, but have been unable to offer it again due to the pandemic. This year, they reached out to Habitat for Humanity to co-host the event in the back lot of their Guelph location. Deb Stanton of the ReStore says, “We are very excited to be hosting the Re:Purpose Fest event this year. Guelph Tool Library and the Habitat ReStore share many of the same values in terms of reusing and recycling items, environmental awareness, and of course helping out our community members in creative ways. While visiting the Re:Purpose Fest, we encourage attendees to also check out what the ReStore has to offer.”
The single-day event hopes to divert 1000kg of recyclable or reusable materials from the landfill. The Guelph Tool Library hopes that meeting with the organizations that can repurpose these items will help more people embrace the concept of a circular economy. Tool Library Program Coordinator Steph Clarke states, “The more we learn about the life cycle of our goods, and the options we have for keeping things out of landfill, the stronger we will become as a community that works together to fight climate change.”
The Guelph Tool Library is in search of volunteers that can assist at the different donation stations throughout the day, as well as with set up and tear down at the event. Interested volunteers are asked to email [email protected] to fill out an online application. Anyone over 14 years of age can apply, and student volunteers can earn up to 8 hours for their mandatory community service.
The Church of the Apostles Helper Bees Program and the Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition's Community FEWD initiative are providing a free community meal for the attendees and volunteers at Re:Purpose Fest. The event will be rounded out by some family friendly entertainment and activities, including button making, and workshops from the Backyard Caring Program and Living Better On Less. Those interested in donating items at the event can view the list of accepted goods at https://guelphtoollibrary.org/repurpose-fest/.
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