The West Howe Sound Community Association wants to get one R-step closer to prolonging the life of the Sechelt Landfill. That’s a laudable goal – and the WHSCA is planning a fun way to reach it.
According to a consultants’ report to the Sunshine Coast Regional District last month, the landfill will swell to capacity in as little as seven years unless we decrease the amount of waste we send there. How to decrease it? Reduce, reuse, recycle, the saying goes.
Over the past year, the WHSCA tackled the first R with a neighbourhood composting project. The association hopes to motivate Coasters toward the second R with a reuse event in the fall.
The event will combine a free market with a reuse workshop, along with a community trash bash on the same weekend. A recent WHSCA planning meeting for the event focused on the idea of repairing rather than dumping household objects.
Wayne Harjula, a glass artisan from Langdale, and Bryan Cramer, an organizer for the Sunshine Coast Mini Maker Faire, joined the Feb. 7 meeting to explain their reuse project, the Repair Café.
Harjula, Cramer and about six other volunteers have hosted monthly sessions of the Repair Café at the Gibsons Library since July. Last week they took the café to Sunnycrest Mall.
The Repair Café is a hands-on session where anyone can bring a broken household item and work with a volunteer to fix it.
Harjula explained the goals of the café as education and human interaction. It’s not meant to take the place of standard appliance repairs, textile alterations, and other commercial services. Rather, it’s a last resort for people with old but cherished objects that would otherwise go to the dump.
The owner stays with the repair person during the fix-it time. The volunteer shares repair tips and the philosophy of extending the life of household objects. The objects can be anything from electronics to toasters to a wobbly, landscape-painted footstool that Harjula fixed at the Sunnycrest event with a few new screws.
There’s usually an obvious way to fix something, Cramer said. “It’s not voodoo magic.”
I found that out myself when I joined Harjula at the Sunnycrest event. As I arrived he was helping Elphinstone resident Donald Mackay repair a charger for an electric drill.
“We’ve been taking our time, having a chat while we fix this,” Harjula said as he pulled the transformer from the recharger’s housing. “The fun is in interacting with people while doing it.”
Next it was my turn. I had brought an old vacuum cleaner with a roller that wouldn’t roll. Harjula turned it upside down and found dental floss snagging the mechanism. After a few tugs at the string it was fixed.
The West Howe Sound Community Association is planning to set up a Repair Café at the reuse fest in September. The event will also feature a free market where used items will be available free of charge.
The reuse fest will take place on a Saturday in Shirley Macey Park, with the specific weekend to be announced closer to the date. The trash bash is tentatively planned for the Sunday.
In the meantime, MLA Nicholas Simons will be speaking at a WHSCA general meeting at Eric Cardinall Hall in Shirley Macey Park at 7 p.m. on March 21.
Until then, send your news of West Howe Sound to [email protected].
