Project that loans household items for nominal sums is attempting to reduce waste, save customers money and train young people
An awe-inspiring array of tools, from trowels to an angle grinder, are laid out rather beautifully on the rough reclaimed wood shelves running along one side of the Share Shop in Frome, Somerset. Nestled among them is a photograph of the man who donated them, on a card explaining that they belonged to his late brother, a builder, who died of a heart attack. “When we walked past and saw the shop, we knew it was the perfect place for his tools to go,” it reads.
The shop, which opened at the end of last month, is billed as the only one of its kind in the UK at the moment (although there’s also been a “Library of Things” piloted in West Norwood, south London). By allowing residents to borrow, for a minimal fee, good quality household and leisure items donated by the public, it aims to save people money and reduce waste – the average electric drill is used for just 15 minutes in its lifetime, the organisers point out. At the same time, the scheme has offered the young people who built it from scratch a free, intensive training in community entrepreneurship.
Most people learn best from just doing. They get an experience of what it’s like to set up a community enterprise
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