About us
Who
The Library of STUFF Co op is a project of Mullum Cares Incorporated. A non profit organisation that was founded in 2016 to inspire and enable resource conservation in the Northern Rivers. You can see all things Mullum Cares at mullumcares.org.au.
From April 2017 – June 2024 we grew to be the busiest share library in the country with over 5000 loans per year in the 22/23 and then again 23/24. Demand continued but our membership’s capacity to offer more volunteer time did not eventuate in time to compensate for the gaps left when our funding from the flood to pay a co ordinator ran out in June 2023. Our founder, Sasha Mainsbridge needed to step in to manage the restructure of the operation into a co operative model.
Members are now individuals or households who pay the equivalent of $1 a week and give a little over an hour a week of their time. Together we process the lending activities and gather in focused groups to maintain and grow the inventory and it’s benefit to the broader community. We proactively seek to support local schools, community groups, other non profit orgs and event organisers to borrow our stuff in order to reduce their own ecological footprints and save money so our operation can allow them to spend their precious funds on unavoidable expenses. We don’t need much money to operate as we aren’t paying wages or rent or bills except the occasional water bill.
Our landlord is the Mullumbimby & District Neighbourhood Centre who generously give us the space where we operate.
What
The Library of STUFF is a community library filled with good quality items that are shared amongst its members. We exist to radically reduce human demand for goods infrequently used so less extraction, transport, manufacture and disposal is undertaken. This saves resources from the raw materials themselves to the fuels and water used throughout this material transformation process AND emissions.
We are Climate Change Mitigation & Adaption in practice.
To multiple our conservation impacts we prioritise quality and repairability above all other considerations when putting new items in the inventory – regardless of whether we bought them or received them as a donation. We want to showcase hi quality items and inspire our members to buy better themselves items they decide the do need to purchase. All items that don’t meet out high standards are still cleaned up and if they are electrical they are tested and tagged and then either sold or gifted to ensure they keep being used as long as possible.
Where & When
The Library is located in the blue brick shed on the south side of the Mullumbimby Community Hall (formerly the Scout Hall) on River Terrace (behind the post office).
The Library of Stuff operates on the traditional land of the Bundjalung Nation. We acknowledge and pay respect to traditional custodians past, present and emerging, and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.
While the Library is open on Thursday’s 3-5 and Saturday’s 9-11 for lending and working bee activities, if you are not yet a member, it is important to register to attend an Activity via the activity page on this website and ‘try before you buy’ meaning attend and help for 2.5 hours at an activity and then you can sign up, pay your membership fee and borrow if you like!
Why
The inspiration for the Library of Stuff name came from Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff mini documentary (20mins) that details the detrimental effects of increasing consumption of low-quality consumer goods. These goods use materials extracted from the earth, some are finite, most are not renewing at the rate of extraction. These goods have a massive emissions impact from extraction to production to transport to disposal. These goods are often made by people who are not paid fairly and in countries who’s environmental protection rules are not as robust as Australia’s.
Stop Wasting
Buying items we infrequently use wastes money and storage space. If those items are not made in Australia or under a Fair Work Agreement they may also be exploiting the people and places involved in their journey from extraction through manufacturing to the store that you bought them from.
Borrow Don’t Buy
If you can take or leave a purchase, ask yourself if the items creation is good for the planet, bad or neutral. You’ll probably know the answer well enough without needing expert information. If in doubt, borrow instead of buy. Or go without. Saving the planet by being a Library of Stuff Co op member seriously saves our members heaps of cold hard cash.
Buy Better & Actively Care for Your Stuff
We connect members with the benefits of using good quality items and through our maintenance processes and working bees we demonstrate how to really take care of the stuff. Sharing & Repairing have been described in this era of hyper-consumption as ‘radical acts’; activities that fly in the face of the core capitalist message of ‘buy now’. Watch the Netflix movie with that name here.
Behaviour Works Roadmap to Circular Economy project has lots of great intel on the problem and solutions to over consumption and production of goods. Borrowing/Renting are the most impactful behaviours you can do to reduce the unsustainable waste of the planets finite resources. Here’s the one pager and all information about their project can be found at : https://www.behaviourworksaustralia.org/major-project/responsible-consumption-behavioural-roadmap-to-circular-consumption
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Our Impact
We aspire to grow the initiative into a self sustaining operation that is financially capable of employing a permanent staff member. We are a way off this goal and reject the obvious solution which is to focus on growing our only source of income, membership fees. More members without more stuff would lead to reduced access to items and with the cost of square footage in the Byron Shire we are always restricted by physical space.
More work to investigate other income streams is underway with the University of Queensland assisting with the research. If you or someone you know is in the position to make a tax deductible donation to help us move closer to a position of financial viability please see our Donation tab for details. Money comes from selling things and our purpose being to encourage people NOT to buy but borrow instead presents a unique but obvious challenge to our plight.
Winner of Byron Shire's Community Initiative of the Year Award
