The Bassendean Repair Cafe has received the $5000 Best of the West grant which will be put towards a community tool library.
After being offered to use a free space at the Bassendean Youth Centre, the committee of volunteers can now start sourcing inventory.
Similar projects have taken off worldwide and involve the community having a collection of items such as tools, camping gear, party supplies and sewing equipment to share.
They plan to open twice a week and work off an online booking system.
Many share shed models around the world charge a yearly fee, but with the help of the grant they aim to do it for free.
Town of Bassendean committee member Gina Ogilvie said “The whole idea behind it is to reduce waste, reduce things going into landfill, to encourage people to use things more than once, and stop things being thrown out”.
The 2020 Own Your Impact report stated that the average household was responsible for 18kg of waste in landfill each week.
Town of Bassendean mayor Renee McLennan has prioritised reducing that wastage and “taking environmentally sustainable actions”.
Last year Bassendean had 1000 trees planted and were the first town north of the river to introduce the three bin system.
Mrs McLennan’s husband is also chairman of the Bassendean Repair Cafe which will work alongside the new share shed.
The Repair Cafe is a group of volunteers which meet once a month at a local cafe and repair items for community members including sewing and fixing electrical appliances.
Repair Cafe customer Barbara Keating said “I had some zips put into curtain covers, I would unstitch them and the ladies would sew them in… a community is about working together and helping each other out”.
Volunteers from Bassendean and surrounding areas were still being sourced and an ideal inventory list was being assembled.
The committee aims to have the share shed running in the Bassendean Youth Centre late this year.
