Building The Community With Tools!
It’s an exciting time for the sharing economy in Toronto. The team at Toronto Tool Library are growing their community space that is focused on sharing! Currently they have opened four Toronto Tool Library location across Toronto, and are in the process of opening up The Sharing Depot which takes more than just tools and gives them a second life. “Certainly in tools we can [share],” says co-founder Ryan Dyment, “with the Library of tools we’re [seeing] there is actually a lot more that we can share. Some things are not practical, but some things are. We’re testing what Toronto’s appetite for that is.”
Don’t get us wrong, tools are an essential part of our home, but with small spaces and the lack of storage, owning every tool that is needed for projects is getting to be difficult. This is why if you’ve ever needed a tool for a project but couldn’t justify buying it for a one time use Toronto Tool Library is the place you need to go!
We were happy to host the Toronto Tool Library at the National Home Show, and we wanted to see for ourselves exactly what a tool library is, and what it looks like. The excitement grew as the day to take a visit to the Toronto Tool Library East at 1803 Danforth Ave. got closer! Upon arrival, we were warmly greeted by Ryan who gave us a tour of the shop!
Toronto Tool Library is a place where members are able to take out tools to use in upcoming projects whether it is a personal project or a community initiative. They are always hosting super fun events, and have people that are ready to inspire you on your next project! Building a canoe? They got the clamps for that!
Check out this little video to get a better idea of what we’re talking about:
For more information it’s best to check out their website. You can find exact details on membership pricing if you go HERE!
The Toronto Tool Library is always looking for tools, and volunteers. If you have tools you’re not using give them a second life at the library! There are opportunities to be involved in a volunteer exchange program where you can give time in exchange for a membership at the library. There are various volunteer roles that you can learn more about here.
We were super excited to learn about the upcoming opening of The Sharing Depot Canada’s first library of things. It is an extension of the tool library and will have more items available for borrowing. It was a crowd funded campaign and is expected to open within the next month! For up to the minute details as to when it will open be sure to follow on Facebook.
How did you and the team initially come up with the idea of a “Toronto Tool Library”?
We thought we could do more if we started a non-profit organization, so we incorporated a non-profit not really knowing exactly where it would go just saying let’s get that step out of the way. I was just watching youtube and I got a link to a video through a newsletter, and I saw this video about a tool library in California that started in the 1970’s. Some guy just had a ton of tools that he had in a trailer, and he was just [letting people borrow tools] and called it a library. He didn’t have the ability to man it, or track the inventory, he was just doing it. After 10 years he merged with the public library system. So now if you live in Berkeley, California, you can take out tools for free. It’s a free service. We [looked at that] as inspiration, and why don’t we do something like that here in Toronto.
Just with the money in my bank account we leased a place and didn’t have a ton of tools but before we opened, the media caught on to the story because we were trying to recruit tools from the neighbourhood. Once the word was out people were like wow that’s an amazing idea and they started donating a lot of tools, and we got a lot of volunteers, and we were ready to go. Within 6 months we opened a second one which was awesome!
What are your thoughts on the future of the sharing economy?
Consumption in the 21st century has to be different, we’re shipping things back and forth around the world because it’s inexpensive to do but so much of those costs are hidden, they’re externalized and not put into the price tag of the item itself but they’re a cost to the environment that we will feel later.
We have to think smarter about how we are consuming resources and that means manufacturing our products differently so that they last and can be put back into a recyclable process. A lot of these tools are very difficult to recycle. A lot of it goes to waste, with us we’re trying to extend the life. The tool library is giving these tools a second life [otherwise] these tools are just sitting in basements gathering dust, kind of imprisoned in these dusty spaces, and we’re freeing them to be more available to the public, so they don’t have to purchase new version goods anymore!
We’ve loaned out over 25,000 tools approaching 30,000 now since we’ve opened and that’s growing exponentially because we get more members. We’ll see where it goes, I think there’s an appetite for tools I don’t know what it is for the other things that we’re going to start sharing. I want it to become a part of the culture. I envision things like this will become more mainstream and more like necessity because you just don’t have the space, even if you have a basement often you need to rent it out [for] a second income. You can just access the things that you need when you need them.
Any tools you like to use?
Always have to have a drill around. I’ve used the angle grinder to help my friends with cutting a bike lock. In the spring when bike season really happens people will say I lost my key to my bike lock so the angle grinder is really useful for that. Some really cute hand tools that I like, pliers. [See photo of Ryan with his adorable pliers!]
Where have you gotten tools, any strange tool donations?
they tend to come in, sometimes in bunches, sometimes an old tool box filled with rusted tools that we can’t really use. But we do our best we have a tool hospital that repairs the tools if they need repairs and to get them back into shape. We don’t want to waste we want to minimize the waste. That’s part of our strategy, is to be a part of waste management in Toronto where not only are we reducing landfill but we’re trying to extend the life of the things that eventually will be landfilled and repairing them.
