Reuse Advertising

You guys know the spiel, The Bower is an independent environmental charity co-operative. We survive predominantly on funds raised through the sale of goods, and are beholden only to our members, having no parental or auspicing body.

That said, Marrickville council have been one of our most staunch supporters since our founding days.
 They strongly believe in our aims and objectives here at The Bower. Through word of mouth and contributions to our Reuse Referral Service they've helped us greatly increase the amount of waste we can divert from landfill - often without even seeing it come in to the store!

When we approached Marrickville council for a grant to update our signage last year we did so because we wanted new signs that were highly visible, that mentioned some of our more recent initiatives, like our Eco-Library. Mostly we wanted some giant signs for our 'new'(reused) truck.  We're super excited and grateful that Marrickville shared our vision and funded this project, and we look forward to an increase in waste diverted from landfill through The Bower as a result of our raised profile in the area.

What we hadn't considered, probably because it's second nature for us, is just how great an example of reuse the project would turn out to be.

To practice what we preach, we agreed to sand down our old hand painted boards, and cut new sheets for A-frames without boards from donated metal. When the donated metal ran out, we found the back of some metal shelving that was missing other parts, and put it to new (re)use by cutting it down to size with an angle grinder. Some A-frames were re-glued, re-hinged or de-rusted during this process as well.

We also limited the number of signs/A-frames required by making them dual purpose. we have 'Open' on one side and 'closed' on the other of a single Aframe for example, and our direction boards for throughout the Addison Road Centre double as signage for markets and festivals.

To reduce embedded energy (from transport) and costs we opted to go with a local business who understood our reuse & repair ethos and were willing to work with us on our old boards and signs. Sign Kiosk have been fantastic, accommodating us at every turn, and double checking everything to ensure we wouldn't be wasting money on typos or size errors. If they could stop the rain to get to our truck signs applied sooner, I'm sure they would!