About us
Who
The Library of STUFF is a project of Mullum Cares Incorporated. A not for 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.com.au.
We rely on volunteers to open the Library to our members and undertake all of the inbetween running around tasks required to manage and improve the initiative.
What
The Library of STUFF is a community library filled with good quality items that are shared amongst its members. It provides affordable access to items for the Byron Shire community, including individuals, families and Not For Profit organisations including School classes. Whenever possible when we purchase new products we do so locally, supporting and promoting local businesses who stock quality products.
The Library of Stuff operates on the traditional land of the Bundjalung Nation. We acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional custodians of this land, past, present and emerging, and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.
Where & When
The Library is located in the brick shed on the south side of the Mullumbimby Community Hall (formerly the Scout Hall) on River Terrace near Burringbar Street. Please see our home page for updated holiday hours.
Tuesday 8 – 10am
Thursday 3 – 5pm
Saturday 9 – 11am
Why
The inspiration for the Library of Stuff name came from Annie Leonard’s Story of Stuff mini documentary that details the detrimental effects of increasing consumption of low-quality consumer goods. With cheap, less durable options available, more expensive, longer lasting goods are being purchased less and less and the impact is evident in the increasing volume of waste our communities are producing and climate change. The majority of emissions generated are directly related to the extraction, distribution and disposal of goods for human consumption.
Sharing & Repairing are decidedly radical acts these days as they directly oppose modern societies capitalist purpose.
To ‘grow’ our economy with more and more spending.
Subscribe for Updates
It is imperative once you are a member that you receive and read our email communications. We send them less frequently than monthly so we wont overload your inbox! We post more regularly on Facebook and Insta if your into either of those platforms.
Our Impact
The Library has grown organically with very little promotion as we are constantly limitied by space and volunteer capacity. In 2021 we received a donation that allowed us to employ our Co Founder, Celine Massa, to work on Amplifying the Impact of our operation in order to demonstrate its benefits to the community and the environment.
We aspire to grow the initiative into a self sustaining operation that is financially capable of employing a permanent co ordinator. 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.
Celine’s 12 month role has resulted at the half way mark with the creation of our first Impact Report. We are delighted to present it to you.
Winner of Byron Shire's Community Initiative of the Year Award for 2021
On January 27 the Byron Shire Council announced it’s annual awards that included their Environmental Initiative of the Year Award which went to Bangalow Koala’s. The judges felt that the Library of Stuff must be acknowledged for it’s sucess and impact both environmentally and socially so they created a new category, the Community Initiative of the Year Award and awarded it to us!