Published: 29 July 2024

Every Friday for over eight months, a team of volunteers were busy turning a corner of the Moruya Transfer Station into a solar reuse centre.

Using two shipping containers, a heap of recycled materials and some creativity, the non-profit organisation Repurposing for Resilience (RfR) partnered with Council to create a community hub that intercepts solar panels from landfill.

One container was turned into a workshop where they inspect, wash, and repair the panels and any associated hardware.

The second container is an art space. They are fitted out with 90 percent recycled materials - timber offcuts, roofing iron from the tip and things like bubble wrap from Taronga Zoo used as insulation. And of course, repurposed solar panels power the centre.

Walking into the art space, interesting trinkets made from waste catch your eye - jewellery from old cutlery, baskets from electrical cables. It makes you think twice about how things can be kept forever, instead of throwing them out.

With no time to waste, anything purchased can be taken on the spot – there’s no waiting until the exhibition ends.

The huge paintings sold like hotcakes during the centre’s opening earlier this year. No surprise the canvasses used were solar panels! They sparked so much interest, RfR ran a workshop to teach people how to prep an old panel for a painting.

Not everyone is handy on the tools or creative, but anyone interested can learn. The reuse centre is the beginning of more great things to come, with a dustfree space on its way to run electronic workshops. The reuse centre wants to evolve and is open for more people to get involved.

If you’re interested, contact the team at RfR or pop in and check it out for yourself on a Friday or Saturday 9.30am – 2.30pm.

A staff of three work Fridays repurposing solar panels alongside a swag of volunteers who want in on the action - fabricators, artists, facilitators and even an aerospace engineer. On Saturdays the volunteers come in and tinker.

There’s some amazing hidden talent here in Eurobodalla, smart people with special skills - some retired and willing to stay busy, giving back to the community.

When households upgrade solar panels, the old ones often have life left to give. Solar panels can be dropped at the reuse centre for free, or at any waste facility for a $10 fee where Council staff inspect and package them up to take to the reuse centre at Moruya.

The panels and hardware are tested and made compliant before being sold back to the community at an affordable price. If they don’t come up to scratch, the RfR team finds other ways to keep them in use. Panels that are broken, Council sends off to be stripped and recycled.

RfR is a non-profit organisation reliant on volunteers and government funding to operate. While funding comes and goes, a small income from the solar panels, waste art and workshops helps keep the organisation afloat.

The reuse centre demonstrates the concept of a circular economy. It's like recycling, but better.

Instead of just turning things into new stuff, it's about keeping things in use, making sure they don't become trash in the first place. If we all kept as many things as possible in use instead of throwing them away – it’d make a huge difference.

For more information visit the RfR website.

• This story was first published in Council’s quarterly newsletter for residents, Living in Eurobodalla. A printed edition is delivered to Eurobodalla's 26,000 households.

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