{"id":34862,"date":"2024-07-25T17:29:39","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T21:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=34862"},"modified":"2024-08-01T10:13:18","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T14:13:18","slug":"circular-economy-initiatives-help-keep-useful-items-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/circular-economy-initiatives-help-keep-useful-items-going\/","title":{"rendered":"Circular Economy initiatives help keep useful items going"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recycle, Reduce, Reuse has been a green mantra for generations, but when it comes to Reuse, sometimes a helping hand is needed to make that happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

York Region is stepping up with a series of initiatives to make Reuse an even more practical option in reducing waste by underscoring a fourth R \u2013 Repair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Region\u2019s series of Repair Cafes have been a popular venue this summer for residents looking to get a little more mileage out of a wide variety of household and textile items. These cafes bring together handy experts who are able to work their special touch on everything from bike chains, to electronics, to jewellery and small appliances \u2013 and teach the art of repair themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One such caf\u00e9 hosted by the Region at Richmond Hill\u2019s Central Library earlier this month was completely booked, as is an upcoming session August 10 at Newmarket Public Library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest slate of Cafes soon to open for registration will take place September 21 at Vaughan Public Libraries, October 26 at Whitchurch-Stouffville Public Library, and November 23 back at the Aurora Public Library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Repair Cafes are among our most popular Circular Economy Programs,\u201d says Julie Hordowick, Program Manager of the Integrated Waste Management Strategy for the Region of York. \u201cLots of folks [have been] going through and getting items fixed, or at least learning a little bit more about their items while connecting with the fixers. The program is delivered by New Make It, which is a makerspace in Newmarket that manages the program and recruits volunteers to help with the fixing. We then host them at Libraries [who say] it is one of the most requested programs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Region defines the \u201ccircular economy\u201d as a concept that \u201celiminates waste and pollution and conserves resources. It\u2019s a shift from a throw-away to a circular mindset to extend the lifestyle of goods, food and resources through better design and continuous reuse so nothing goes to waste.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn a circular economy, instead of industries, manufacturers and consumers taking resources, using them once and disposing of them, they will be kept in use,\u201d says the Region. \u201cProducts will be designed to be more durable, reusable, repairable and recyclable, and businesses will look for ways to eliminate waste in their operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cConsumers will rethink the way they purchase, use and dispose of things \u2013 options for sharing, renting, repairing and repurposing items to prevent waste will become more common. This circular shift will lead to less impact on the environment, allowing the earth\u2019s resources to recover and regenerate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the Repair Cafes, additional initiatives the Region is deploying to promote the Circular Economy concept are Curbside Giveaway Days and, in association with local libraries, \u201cLenderies\u201d where residents are able to check out items, such as tools and appliances like power washers, they might need for a limited time and can return when they\u2019re finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Circular Economy came out as a focus for our waste management programming as part of our SM4RT Living plan, which is our long-term Waste Management Master Plan and looking at how our community is expected to grow quite a bit,\u201d says Hordowick. \u201cWe have a lot of very successful waste diversion programs and the opportunity we saw to improve the environmental and financial sustainability of our waste program wasn\u2019t looking at ways we could reduce waste and knowing that change towards waste reduction and reuse means a behaviour change and a way of doing things for our residents, but also that there needs to be different opportunities for people within the community to access some of these services, to participate in the Circular Economy. We\u2019re hearing (from residents) that more \u2018lenderies\u2019 would be great with more items and more opportunities to participate in those kinds of programs. We have a lot of demand for Repair Caf\u00e9 programs, but one of the limiting factors is we don\u2019t always have the volunteers with the skills to repair things \u2013 so, there are also opportunities to train more volunteers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a very new term for folks. It\u2019s a lot more repairing, a lot more mending our clothing, a lot more sharing amongst family members and neighbours rather than owning our own. It\u2019s bringing that back but understanding there is a modern twist on it. Swapping items might happen through a website or it might happen more digitally. It could be sharing platforms where you\u2019re finding out things that way, YouTube\u2019ing to learn more about repair skills we may have lost. When it comes [to the Circular Economy] we try to stress that you don\u2019t need to do all the things. It\u2019s important that people find the ways to participate in the circular economy in ways that fit their own lifestyle and their own ideas. You don\u2019t need to mend every sock and make everything last as long as you can; it\u2019s finding ways that are practical for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on the Region\u2019s Circular Economy Initiatives, including upcoming opportunities, visit www.york.ca\/newsroom\/campaigns-projects\/circular-economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recycle, Reduce, Reuse has been a green mantra for generations, but when it comes to Reuse, sometimes a helping hand is needed to make that happen. York Region is stepping up with a series of initiatives to make Reuse an even more practical option in reducing waste by underscoring a fourth R \u2013 Repair. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/2024-07-25-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-94i","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 06:37:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}