Resource Work Cooperative Coordinator P/PT (25 hrs/wk)
The Resource Board of Management is seeking a unique individual to step into an exciting position within our expanding, dynamic and successful worker-owned and operated non-profit cooperative.
Resource requires the successful applicant to coordinate its waste minimisation business, including operations at South Hobart Tip Shop and Resource Collectables.
Previous management experience in a consensus based community organisation is highly desirable. More info is available here.
Position descriptions and selection criteria are available from Resource: 117 Elizabeth Street, Hobart or phone (03) 6234 3772.
Written applications addressing the selection criteria should be sent to:
Resource Work Cooperative invites you to its annual community art exhibition, Art From Trash!
Opening night is Friday 23rd July from 6-8pm at Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart, Tasmania.
The exhibition will be open 10am - 5pm, Thursday 22nd July until Monday 2nd August. For more information follow the link above to our website, or check us out on Facebook
David O'Byrne (Minister for Environment, Parks and Heritage) presents the Ministers Special Award
Both these awards were achieved for the Brisbane Street Deconstruction Project undertaken by Resource and completed earlier this year. It was fantastic recognition of all the hard work that made the project such a fantastic success. The project proved in practical terms that good environmental decisions can also be good decisions for business and local employment!
Tim Hankey (Deconstruction Project Manager) receives the Small Business Sustainability Award
Resource Work Cooperative would also like to congratulate:
Resource Work Cooperative recently completed a major deconstruction and recycling project in Hobart. 98% of all materials from the demolition of a large warehouse and former whaler’s cottage were saved from ending up as landfill. Most of these materials will be used later this year in the building of a new School’s Together Sustainability Centre in Mount Nelson.
Resource on site
Instead of adopting a traditional destructive approach to demolition, reliant on heavy machinery and few workers, the buildings were dismantled by hand. This process of deconstruction, although slower, created 12 jobs over the 3-month project while allowing the processing and reuse of an enormous volume and variety of materials.
As a small snapshot of what was saved, this included:
- 15,000 convict era bricks (to be reused at the Port Arthur Convict Farm)
- a further 100+ tons of red solid bricks
- over 4000 linear metres of hardwood
- over 900 linear metres of softwood
- a complete 1840s timber staircase, as well as a 5 metre steel staircase
- over 300m of steel I-beams
- heritage pit sawn timbers and floorboards, as well as hand picked sandstone
- fittings including toilets, sinks, lights, plugs, telephones, etc.
- 400 kilograms of copper wiring & 150 kilos of lead were recycled
- Over 170m2 floorboards
- Over 600m2 roof tin
- even coins from 1826 & 1827
Resource, based its approach on the “Waste Hierarchy” (reduce, reuse, recycle), concentrating on reusing materials first. However, where this was not possible materials were recycled (i.e. copper from electrical wiring, broken bricks as road base and leftover timbers i.e. due to rot as compost).
Resource Work Cooperative worked in collaboration with Morrison & Breytenbach Architects, the Department of Education and the Department of Housing to achieve exemplary environmental outcomes.
For more info contact, Project Coordinator
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There is something quite sad about seeing photographs of people’s lives thrown away - memories and moments of time caught in a photograph discarded. Often these will be the only thing left of someone’s life. Who were they? What are their stories? What brought them to Tasmania? What lives did they live here? Were they happy?
Over the years Resource Work Cooperative has salvaged an enormous number of photographs from McRobies Gully Waste Management Centre in South Hobart, Tasmania. Without this, quite simply, all these photographs would now be in landfill - buried under tons of household garbage, building waste and mud. There are many reasons why these photographs may have ended up being discarded, adding to the story behind each photograph; and some were dropped off directly to us, in hope they would be of value to someone.
We have sold some at the Tip Shop or Collectables shop but most have been archived. In May 2002 Resource organized an exhibition called Welcome to AppleLand at the Carnegie Gallery, Hobart, where a wide variety of pre-1950s photographs were displayed . It was a great success. Many people found relatives in the photos and were allowed to reclaim the photographs for themselves. While even more enjoyed the fascinating insight into the lives of the people and places of Tasmania’s past.
Not all the photos will be of Tasmania but they must at least have had some connection to the Apple Isle; after all it was here in Hobart that they discarded or donated.
Resource Work Cooperative's annual community art exhibition will will run from Thursday 16th – Sunday 26th July at the Long Gallery, Salamanca Art Centre, Hobart. The exhibtion will be open 10am to 5pm daily.
We have over 70 artworks, from over 60 artists, so come along and see what amazing artworks can be made from what people throw away. Vote for your favourite artwork in the People's Choice Award, announced at the end of the exhibition.
Opening night is Friday 17th July at 6pm.
Jeff Blake, local writer, performer, contemporary comic and social commentator, will be opening the exhibition. We will also be announcing winners of our new prizes, the Mojo Wearable Art Award and the Trash Rat Youth Award for entrants 15 years and under. It promises, as always, to be a great event! – all are welcome.
There are at least three good things about Resource in a recession:
1.Your discarded and donated goods are still saved from landfill, providing
2.Our customers with affordable goods to buy, meaning
3.Our workers keep their jobs and we may even be able to employ new people!
Resource Work Cooperative is a not-for-profit cooperative. What this means is we make enough money to employ workers and pay our bills. Any surplus from year to year is used to create more positions for workers or to improve our infrastructure and facilities. The surplus can also be used to buffer against any future losses in income, to ensure our workers keep their jobs.
Resource also provides goods that are affordable for everyone. We even give goods away! Our focus is to provide an alternative to buying new, which is not only good for the hip pocket, and the environment, but also directs money into a not-for-profit cooperative that protects its workers.
dematerialization /de-muh-teer-ree-uhl-ize-shuhn / n. 1 materials that mysteriously appear in shops, are used briefly, then seemingly disappear without a trace. 2 materials that do not matter [Latin de DOES NOT materia MATTER]
On Thursday 1st January 2009, from 11am to 10pm, Resource Work Cooperative created a ‘relational art installation’, titled dematerialization, as part of the Installed Taste art program at the Taste Of Tasmania. Resource staff cleared out one tonne of clothing from the racks of the South Hobart Tip Shop, and trucked it down to the Taste, to give it all away. It was a mammoth effort, but resulted in over two-thirds of the clothing being given away to the public at the Taste. The remaining clothing was trucked back up to the Tip Shop and has also been given away. Thank you to everyone that kindly gave donations to Resource on the day. This was greatly unexpected but also greatly appreciated!
