Our customers
The Reverse Garbage warehouse is a regular haunt for home renovators and builders, teachers, artists, set designers, gardeners, craftspeople and just plain bargain hunters.
Lots of people look for materials for their houses – shelving, noticeboards, furniture-making and garden materials. There is always interest in props and bizarre merchandising stock. A giant bookworm was snapped up for decorating a library and that’s a better option than landfill.
Sculptors are always after interesting metal shapes, timber offcuts and foam while printmakers pounce on perspex pieces. Other artists, designers, craftspeople, film-makers and performing arts professionals hunt materials for montage, collage, installation, wearable art, interior design, mosaics and prop-making. Quilters look for cotton fabrics and scrapbookers are interested in the paper and card.
Environmental education is integral to our work, so we are pleased to host visits from teachers and students. Teachers from kindergarten to university level regularly bring student groups to Reverse Garbage for talks on waste minimisation and the creative re-use of industrial discards. We find that students experience the warehouse as an inspiring place to be.
Our Fabulous Customers
‘Our fabulous customers’ is a segment to celebrate beauty and innovation created from discarded materials. Every month a new customer will be featured on our website and noticeboard with an article and photo of their innovative project. ' Our fabulous customer' this month is Elaine Thomas with her plastic bag raincoat and patchwork sheepskin rug.
Kate Wall - Eco Wedding
When Kate Wall started planning her wedding, the environmental consultant and avid RG shopper decided to avoid over-consumption and ensure the wedding was as sustainable as possible. Kate was back here many times finding items she could incorporate into her wedding invites and wedding decorations.
With the help of a little imagination and effort, together with rummaging through local op shops and RG, a tight budget and mission for sustainability were no impediment to a very romantic and beautiful wedding.
First the invites – Kate designed the invites herself, including the artwork, and printed them onto beautiful pearl card from RG. The invites were then decorated with handmade paper leaves embedded with herb seeds, and fabric flowers made with off cuts of the wedding dress. The result was eco, very personal and very beautiful, not to mention a big hit with guests.
RG was also a great source of raw materials for the bonbonierre. Each guest was given a tree seedling to commemorate our wedding, and to offset carbon emissions. Each tree was presented in a handmade hessian pot so that it could be planted directly into the ground without transplanting and leaving no plastic pot to end up in landfill. The pot was tied with pieces of ribbon and lace also found at RG. Even the thread used to sew the pots was sourced from RG!
“The trees were flame tree seedlings – my husband’s favourite tree. In total we shared and planted 100 trees for our wedding.” said Kate
Kate says the greatest thrill was that guests were impressed by the beauty and romance of the day, rather than the “econess”. This led Kate to realise how misunderstood sustainability is when glamour is at stake. Kate has since founded Live and Lovely, a business dedicated to helping others create weddings and events which are not only sustainable, but as beautiful and glamorous as you want them to be. Live and Lovely provides free tips on how to have a sustainable wedding (www.liveandlovely.com.au) in addition to beautiful sustainable products, tree seedlings in hessian pots and sustainability consulting. Kate is now sending all her clients to RG and promoting our gift shop items to the wedding industry!
We wish Kate all the best in her new marriage and new business!
Elaine Thomas - DIY raincoat
Being caught in the rain on her way home from the shops was Elaine Thomas' inspiration to create a raincoat made completely from supermarket plastic bags. Reaching ankle length similar to plastic coats you buy at festivals, Elaine has found a practical and environmentally sound way to keep dry. The raincoat took two hours to make and she has come up with few design improvements such as wider sleeves and perhaps lining the coat with reclaimed calico. 
Elaine also made a patchwork sheeps -skin using lambs wool offcuts we stock at Reverse Garbage. She has the intention to make car seat covers using the same process.
Blackstar Coffee - sustainable shop fit-out
It was a pleasing day when local coffee bean company Blackstar Coffee opened their cafe in Thomas Street, West End. Now the organic freshly roasted coffee is available seven days a week from 7am. Owners Marty and Evonne have been roasting coffee beans since 2005 selling their eclectic caffeine flavours at West End markets and online. Before establishing the Thomas Street location, Blackstar leapt a few hurdles to find the perfect home. It was worth the effort as Blackstar Coffee is now a charming cafe demonstrating environmentally sustainable design practises in their use of salvaged and reclaimed materials.
Marty is a regular shopper at Reverse Garbage West End and has sourced low cost renovation materials that Reverse Garbage has collected and diverted from landfill. Blackstar’s use of timber tones creates an earthy and comfortable space fit for the enjoyment of organic coffee blends. The cedar slats lining the ceiling were purchased from Reverse Garbage and originated from a window blind manufacturer. Another common RG item that Blackstar has found an alternative use for are the sturdy cardboard barrels. Used once as freight packaging by international companies, the barrels now serve as simple table bases.
The decorative tiles lining the walls in the kitchen and bathroom were also Reverse Garbage finds. Being discontinued lines, they would have ended their days in landfill but will now give years of service and look great as well. Blackstar's favourite re-use innovation is using bookbinding material to wrap the coffee beans they mail to online customers. Blackstar purchased the roll of discarded thin, strong-weave bookbinding material and found a practical and alternative use for it. And why not? Just like a good book, good coffee deserves fine handling!
Blackstar Coffee is located at 44 Thomas Street, West End and is open 7 days a week from 7am to 3pm.
HANASHO - flower and Art
To enter Hanasho, on Boundary Street West End is to witness the subtle beauty of combining ‘flower and art’. Mimicking the fragility of the plants themselves, Hiroaki Eba’s creations command your attention with only a whisper. His flower arrangements, organic sculpture, vase designs and table displays are made on site in his out back workshop room.
Eba’s unique style has been cultivated over a 30-year art practice; beginning in Japan he has resided in Australia for the past nine years. In Japan he owned a similar business where he had weekly commissions from galleries, bars and clubs for his flower arrangements and wall displays.
Eba is a regular customer at West End’s Reverse Garbage, often seen rummaging through the wide range of industrial discards available until a material catches his eye. Recently Eba found white strips of a flexible plastic called ‘polyethelene’ that had been discarded from the Automobile Industry. The plastic has been used in the production of gaskets, now transformed to a single flower vase.
In collaboration with business partner, designer & artist Fukutoshi Ueno, Eba has designed elegant vases entitled; ‘Wave’. Delicate imagery has been digitally printed onto the plastic strips that are bent backward and held in place by a single test tube.
Using the same design with offcuts of leather and cork strips found at Reverse Garbage, the designers have added multiple test tubes, painted animal prints to create whimsical pencil holders.
The ‘Wave’ vases are for sale at Hanasho store and costs $20. They are also available at Artisan in Fortitude Valley and the Art Gallery of NSW.
