Circular Communities project: Banff Library of Things
The Recycling Council of Alberta (RCA) is working with municipalities across Alberta on the Circular Communities project to create opportunities to design out waste and conserve resources to transition to a circular economy.
The project’s first phase (completed in 2020) involved consulting with communities and collaboratively developing unique roadmaps for how each community can begin to design their own transition to a circular economy.
The RCA has now secured additional grant funding to pursue the second phase of the Circular Communities project: implementation. Three communities will work with the RCA to put their roadmaps into action.
As a part of phase two, the Recycling Council of Alberta has supported Banff in developing their sharing economy through an equipment lending pilot program. The idea of a lending library came from the original RCA circular economy road mapping process in phase 1 of the Circular Communities project. Sequentially, the Town conducted a survey with residents determining there was significant interest in the idea.
The Town has partnered with the Banff Public Library to develop a Library of Things which officially opened in October.
Thanks to the Library of Things, Banff and Lake Louise residents can now borrow a variety of items that are rarely used, hard to store, or are expensive, such as tools, cooking appliances and hobby items. It is free to access – all you need is a valid Banff Public Library membership.
The Library of Things will help reduce community-wide waste and consumption, and contribute to social inclusion, accessibility, and affordability for members of the community.
The initiative could be expanded in the future with community programming such as training workshops, repair/fix-it sessions, community events (sewing tutorials, vehicle maintenance workshops) and more.
