The City of Greater Bendigo’s work to create a Circular Greater Bendigo has moved a step forward with its support of the Bendigo Share and Repair Shed – a partnership between Access Australia Group, Commoners Co-op and the Bendigo Repair Café.
The Bendigo Repair Cafe was established in 2017 and has provided a regular monthly Cafe at various local locations. It is part of an international repair movement that began in the Netherlands in 2009 where Repair Cafe’s engage volunteers to both fix broken items for community members and teach them how to fix things for themselves.
With support from the City of Greater Bendigo the Bendigo Repair Café and Bendigo Share and Repair Shed have now moved into permanent premises at 120 Garsed Street Bendigo and have plans to expand to include a tool library and a range of other recycling services. The new venture is set to launch on July 15, 2023.
City of Greater Bendigo Resource Recovery and Education Manager Brooke Pearce said through its Circular Greater Bendigo initiative, the City is supporting the venture by providing funding towards the rental of the Garsed Street premises.
“The Bendigo Share and Repair Shed and the Repair Café are fantastic initiatives that encourage people to repair items rather than throw them out and purchase new,” Ms Pearce said.
“It’s a great example of a circular economy project and the City is pleased to support it’s operation through our Circular Greater Bendigo initiative.
“The City has been working for some time now to identify, develop and implement a number of circular economy and resource management solutions to handle, reprocess and recirculate end-of-life material resources.
“Our Circular Greater Bendigo project draws upon the global rise of the circular economy concept to shift how Greater Bendigo consumes resources and how materials at the end of their life are valued and cycled back into new products.
“It also reduces negative environmental impacts and provides new economic development opportunities for businesses in the region.
“The City is now supporting a number of initiatives through the Circular Greater Bendigo project.”
