Getting all these stakeholders involved has been important for the site’s social sustainability as well as helping its environmental goals. Local school children (there’s two schools very close to the site) have been on site tours and worked on biodiversity projects such as building bird boxes. One further example is the way waste has been dealt with. “We have donated materials to local people using a variety of methods, including advertising surplus materials on Freecycle and Gumtree” says Dixon. He also describes how spare Ultralam timber boarding was given to animal charity Anihab to build stables and spare pipework was donated to a local rabbit sanctuary, giving the residents lots of lovely new tunnels to run through.

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Freecycle is a good online resource where you can give and receive pre-loved gear at no cost. For safety reasons, some items are better purchased new, such as capsules, car seats and cots. If you are buying a second-hand cot, ensure it complies with current Australian standards. Visit www.productsafety.gov.au for more information.

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Worth a look is Freecycle.com, an online community that matches people who have items they want to get rid of to people who can use them. Not only kind on the environment by reducing landfill, but it is great for the pocket, too.

As one of the main rules of Freecycle is a “pick up yourself” policy, your local group is a handy way of getting rid of large items you would normally have to pay to have removed, such as garden furniture and sheds.

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“One of the mantras of the amateur economy has been the need to repair, reuse, renew, recycle. Initiatives such as Freecycle will have an impact,” he said.

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He said he hoped the website would become “the eBay of storage” and encourage communities to exchange services with each other in a similar vein to Freecycle, a website which allows people to acquire or get rid of objects such as furniture for free.

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