Toronto companies making reuse and reduce easy… and trendy!
Most of us grew up learning about the three R’s: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Did you know, though, that when the Environmental Protection Agency structured this now infamous idea in the 1980’s, it deliberately listed the actions in order of their importance? With this in mind, many in the environmental space have now removed the final r – recycle – as a focus area of their sustainability initiatives. This is largely due to the fact that there is a limit to the number of times an item can be recycled and (as we’ve blogged about before) not everything you toss in the blue bin will even be recycled. By far, reducing your consumption and reusing materials have the largest impact on limiting waste, and there are a number of local establishments that have taken this philosophy and created some extremely cool businesses out of it! We’re spotlighting a few today.
credit: @bunz
credit: @commonsort
credit: @anicejewellery
Bunz: By now, you’ve probably heard about Bunz, an online community where people can trade items across clothing, home décor, furniture, and more. The process is simple – create an account and trade things you’re no longer using for things you actually need or want. Each seller will typically have an ISO (or “in search of”) list that you can easily scan to see if trading is a possibility, though some sellers may also accept monetary compensation. All sellers have ratings and reviews as well, so you can be sure you’re dealing with reliable folks. Suppli tip – our favourite item to trade on Bunz is books! Why spend full price for something you’ll read once and put on a shelf when you can trade it and give it multiple lives?
Common Sort: With three different Toronto-based locations, Common Sort is one of our favourite second-hand clothing and accessory stores in the city. Compared to other jam-packed second-hand shops, Common Sort has a strict buying process to ensure their racks can be easily browsed and contain seasonally appropriate, on-trend clothes. This makes the shopping process so much quicker, easier, and more fun! They also run an amazing Instagram through which you can hold items you fall in love with via their Stories until the end of the day for pick-up. When it comes to selling your clothes to Common Sort, they provide either a 25% cash compensation or 50% store credit based on the price they’ll sell the item for. Common Sort always lists the items they are currently buying on their website, so be sure to have a look at this list before lugging bags of clothing over. Suppli tip – when you’re cleaning out your closet, try to separate your fall/winter from spring/summer clothes so you can easily drop off what they are buying for given the season.
Repair Shops: There are all kinds of repair shops in the city who rescue items that may not yet be at the end of their life but are not usable in their current state. One of our favourites is The Sandalman on Davenport, who will rescue any and all of your leather goods from shoes to jackets to furniture. We also love Anice on Ossington, who will breathe new life into your broken, old jewelry. The Repair Café is also a cool resource for repairing goods. It’s a grassroots volunteer group that organizes events where neighbours can help each other repair their broken goods and they have a great list of repair shops in Toronto.
Concerned about the waste you generate from dining out? Consider signing up for Suppli! At Suppli, our goal is to reduce waste in the food services industry with our zero-waste take-out containers. Made of stainless steel, these containers can be used over and over, so you can enjoy meals from your favourite restaurants guilt-free! Simply rent a Suppli container at checkout when placing an order with participating restaurants through your usual food delivery app and return the container to one of our conveniently placed drop off locations.
With so many options out there to extend the life of your items and reduce your impact, we hope you’ve found one or two to help you give a second (or third, or fourth) life to the things you no longer need or use!
