Talkin' 'bout a [green] revolution: the shed's not dead

Tom Bigg-Wither grew up watching his parents Charlie Bigg-Wither and Sandie Parkes run The Green Shed businesses and devote decades to establishing the re-use industry in Canberra.

Now the 24-year-old is taking on the running of The Green Shed Underground, which ostensibly closed for good on May 25, but never really left the building on East Row.

With a lease secured and the public appetite for second-hand goods soaring, Tom has decided to continue his parents' legacy to reduce waste by re-selling items that might otherwise go to landfill.

"It's a very fun, interesting job," he said.

It's another chapter in the recent tumultuous history of The Green Shed.

The ACT Government contract to manage the re-use and re-sell sheds at the Mugga Lane and Mitchell tips was won by the St Vincent de Paul Society of Canberra/Goulburn earlier this year. The contract had previously been held for more than a decade by The Green Shed.

Vinnies opened its Goodies Junction shops at Mitchell and Mugga Lane this week.

Charlie Bigg-Wither and Sandie Parkes decided, separately, to close The Green Shed Shop and The Green Shed Underground because they would no longer have access to donations from the tip sites. There were also concerns about rent for the shops in Civic.

The Green Shed Shop did close in April and won't be re-opening.

However, Tom Bigg-Wither said the lease for the The Green Shed Underground had been secured and he was keen to start pushing back on "overconsumption and waste".

The Green Shed Underground will accept donations direct and has a new sorting area.

Tom has also purchased large green metal bins to place, initially, in central Canberra to accept donations of clothing, shoes, accessories and other unbreakables. The bins are being placed, by agreement, on private land, with the ACT Government in 2020 removing charity bins from public land due to problems with illegal dumping.

Tom said he wanted to re-use as much as was received by The Green Shed Underground.

"I want to give people the option to hand their things over to an organisation they can trust to prioritise the re-use of that item over anything else," he said.

"My mission for the future is to make the dropping off, processing and purchase of reusables as simple and effective as possible. I want to stop things that can be re-used from ending up in the rubbish or recycling stream.

"It's 'reduce, re-use recycle', not 'use, recycle'."

Tom said he also wanted to branch into clearing out deceased estates and other large-scale jobs "where our skills and resources will help save things from being thrown out".

"I would also like to thank the Canberra community for their support during what has been a very disruptive period," he said.

The Green Shed Underground will re-open from 11am to 5pm on Saturday.

Opening hours from then on will be Tuesday to Saturday 11am to 5pm.

More details including donation bin locations is at www.thegreenshed.net.au

Vinnies was also celebrating the opening of its Goodies Junction shops at the Mugga Lane and Mitchell tips.

Vinnies director of commercial operations Lindsay Rae said opening day on Monday had been epic.

"It was such a great feeling to open our doors to the community to come shop and support reuse and repurposing at Goodies Junction," Mr Rae said.

"We saw over 2000 customers grab great deals with 11,000 items saved from landfill.

"The funds raised at Goodies will go towards those in need in our region.

"We've got a long way to go before the facilities evolve to become the Goodies Junction that we have in our plans."