How simple repairs can help reduce waste

First at Five: Repair Instead of Replace During Waste Reduction Week in HRM, people are encouraged to repair old items – rather than send them to a landfill.

There’s a use for nearly every donation that comes into Pinkie’s Thrift in north end Halifax.

“We work really hard at not throwing things out. We find a second home for things that we can’t necessarily use here, but we donate things to different non-profit organizations,” said Shana Hendsbee, the social enterprise, sales and development supervisor with Prescott Group, which runs Pinkie’s thrift.

The shop gives adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities employment opportunities, including Terrin Ritcey.

“My role here at Pinkie’s Thrift is to accept donations from the community, stock the shelves, price items, assist customers, ring in their purchases,” said Ritcey.

It's a busy place where there’s always something to sort -- whether for the store or online auction.

“We collect any kind of donations from household furniture, kitchen items. We get lots of clothing, home décor, shoes, new items, used items,” said auction and store supervisor Jaime MacDougall.

Pinkie’s Thrift made for the perfect backdrop for Halifax Regional Municipality’s (HRM) “Repair Instead of Replace” workshop for the public. It was one of several events taking place as part of Waste Reduction Week.

“We’re here able to help people repair some small textile items, and also teach them how to do some of those simple repairs themselves, and of course, supporting the thrift shop at the same time and reminding people to buy something that’s already in the system,” said waste education resource officer Cyndi Fraser.

The messaging around the event focused on: swap, share, thrift and repair.

“We are in a fast fashion kind of world right now, where people just go purchase new and dispose of the thing and put those textiles in the landfill. It’s important we look at those items and go, ‘They’re not landfill bound yet,’” said Fraser.

This was the second “Repair Instead of Replace” event held this week. The other took place Tuesday in Sheet Harbour, N.S.

On Saturday, HRM is hosting a “Shred Instead” event in Hammonds Plains where people can bring sensitive documents to be shredded. An interactive drop-in event will be held Sunday at the Discovery Centre in Halifax, where a marine rope will be turned into a craft participants can take home.

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