Operated by the Recovered Materials Foundation, a non-profit-making trust, the SuperShed is running financially, slightly ahead of break even.

The set-up costs were covered through the City Council’s waste levy at no cost to ratepayers and any surplus from the SuperShed goes back into recycling development in the city.

As the SuperShed does not pay for goods, it operates without a second-hand dealer’s licence.

The SuperShed came into being because many potentially useful items were being dumped.

It was a success with the public from its early days and other indicators of success are:

• Increased materials are recovered from refuse stations;
• Sales of recovered materials that provide local employment;
• A decrease in rubbish being dumped in landfill sites.

SuperShed reflects throwaway society

Black and white photographs of mum and dad and even one of a wedding group can be found at the Recovered Materials Foundation’s SuperShed.

Once a coffin (or at least one made for display) was sold.

Old furniture, electrical goods, crockery, kitchenware, toys, heaters, pictures, television sets, books, luggage are found in the SuperShed — and so the list goes on.

In fact, anything thrown out at the City Council’s three refuse stations that is able to be reused, repaired or stripped down for parts has a good chance of ending up for sale at the SuperShed off Pages Road, Bexley.

The SuperShed has been operation for just over a year and it has been a spectacular success in increasing the volume of material diverted from the wastestream.

The SuperShed has replaced the retail outlets at the refuse stations where recovered materials used to be sold to the public.

This move was to provide a more userfriendly and accessible retail outlet for a wider cross-section of the community.

For instance, more families with children now visit the Shed than visited the retail outlets at the refuse stations. Prior to the establishment of the Shed the main users were second-hand dealers.

While materials suitable for reuse or recycling are still dropped at the refuse stations, they are now transported to the SuperShed.

Containers of goods are loaded at the refuse stations and, when full, are dispatched to the SuperShed.There, goods are unloaded for cleaning and repairing before sale.

Within days the goods that used to go landfill are on the shelves in the SuperShed itself or in the outside area where the bigger and heavier items, such as a tractor tyre ($25), bikes, bricks, doors, furniture, mowers, golf clubs are displayed.

Inside, magazines, electrical appliances, microwave ovens, more furniture, toys, heaters, pictures, a surprising number of Thermos flasks, and television sets can be found.

Saturday is the busiest day of the week for the 25 full-time staff and three parttimers. Casuals are sometimes taken on, too.

Not only has the recycling concept provided a source of employment in the past year, but there is also often a bargain to be found.

The SuperShed is open 9am-5pm seven days a week. It is in Shuttle Drive, off Pages Road, and next to Cowles Stadium.