One man’s trash, famously, is another man’s treasure.
Just how valuable that treasure can be is on display July 9 at Urban Repurpose’s inaugural Re-Use It & Upcycle Fair.
The event is intended to help change attitudes around what is considered garbage, highlight the environmental and business benefits of a less wasteful circular economy and inspire entrepreneurs and artists.
Since 2015, Urban Repurpose has had the distinction of being the only non-profit that does waste diversion simply for the sake of waste diversion.
For the Upcycle Fair, executive director Tom Riessner has arranged for about 20 different artists, crafters and makers of different kinds to showcase and sell their works made from materials otherwise destined for the dump. The finished products include furniture, art, housewares, jewelry and clothing.
“We’ve been told for the last 70 years that buying new is best and cheap is best. If you were going to try to get people to consume less, and reuse more, we have to show them what the possibilities are,” he said. “The Upcycle Fair is our first attempt at doing that, about changing hearts and minds.”
Riessner invited the artists to come raid the store on Brooksbank Avenue for materials they could use and mix with their own. Among the signature pieces is a six-foot tall octopus made from garbage pulled from the ocean and charcuterie boards salvaged from antique dining tables.
“You can turn trash into beauty,” he said. “We tried to keep it as open as possible. The only criteria that we had for the vendors and the artists was that they use reclaimed material in their work. It’s really important that you treat those materials as a natural resource.”
Metro Vancouver estimates that 77,600 tonnes of material was reused or diverted from landfills in 2021. For his part, Riessner’s store does about 250 tonnes per year, he said.
The store is filled with furniture, art, music, building materials, sporting goods, and housewares.
Some of the more interesting nearly-lost-forever items they’ve found new homes for in recent years: an unused water colour painter’s box from about 1790, art from the 1800s, books from the 1500s, and genuine mid-century modern furniture.
“Stuff that just totally does not belong in garbage,” he said. “We act as a bit of a filter for the community. We try to filter out things that have real value.”
Riessner usually knows the dollar value of the items and materials he’s rescued from the dump but the object isn’t to price them high and wait for a discerning buyer.
“If the goal is to keep as much stuff out of the landfill as possible, then we have to keep things moving and that means sometimes things go out at a super deal,” he said.
For Sunday’s event, Fifth Street east of Brooksbank will be shut down, so Riessner recommends arriving by bike or bus. There will also be live music and a kids’ crafting table, because Reissner said, it’s important to start drilling this message into kids when they’re young.
The store itself won’t be selling any of its treasures that day, but Riesnner’s volunteers will be doing tours “to remind people that everything they see in the store was destined for the landfill.”
The event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m at 2-440 Brooksbank Ave.
