Secondhand Sunday promotes waste reduction, sustainability in Toronto

Editor’s note: Due to the rainy weather across Toronto, Secondhand Sunday was rescheduled to Sunday, October 2nd

Since 2016, Toronto’s bi-annual community reuse event Secondhand Sunday has been championing the ideas of waste reduction, reuse and diverting items from landfill.

The event occurs on the last Sunday of April and September, to coincide with spring and fall cleaning and takes place in neighbourhoods across the city.

Participating is as simple as placing items you no longer use on your front stoop for neighbours or passersby to pickup on the designated day and if you’re so inclined, searching others’ stoops for items you might need. This year’s fall edition will take place on Oct. 2.

“The idea behind it is not foreign to many Torontonians. A lot of us leave gently used items out on our stoop to share with our neighbours, but the idea with Secondhand Sunday was to do it all in one day, to create a community vibe … and to, just as a community, talk about the sharing economy and buying less,” explains co-founder Caroline Brooks.

Free used items are left out on a stoop during the spring edition of Secondhand Sunday in April 2022. FACEBOOK/2ndhandsundayto/

Brooks says it is a simple concept that she hopes will be part of the solution to a big problem.

“We have an issue with waste as a community, as a country. We’re very privileged and it’s very easy for us to source new items rather than just reusing things,” she says. “That is really at the core of [Secondhand Sunday] — questioning what we actually need and how we use our items.”

In the hierarchy of “reduce, reuse, recycle,” Brooks says “refuse” is above them all.

“If we can go without or if we can reuse, that’s much more important than even putting it in recycling because, as we know, recycling often ends up in landfill anyway,” she says.

Brooks says everything about the event is “open source” and they rely on community members to organize it within their ward or neighbourhood on a voluntary basis. A tool kit is available on their website with information and resources including printable flyers and postcards, although it is suggested that printouts be used sparingly to avoid generating more waste.

“Secondhand Sunday is set up to run itself. Once you have the tool kit, you understand how it works — all it takes is reaching out to a few community members to make sure they’re putting out their items and connecting online through our social media,” says Brooks.

A printable postcard is part of Secondhand Sunday’s online tool kit, available on their website. Credit: Secondhand Sunday

If you’re participating and have items to share, you’re encouraged to take a photo and post it on social media and tag Secondhand Sunday’s Instagram account or post on their Facebook event page so that they can re-share and spread the word about where people can find items.

Along with enthusiastic community members, Brooks says Secondhand Sunday has found great support in a local Instagram account called Stooping Toronto that shares their mission.

The account was inspired by a similar one in New York and launched in December, 2020. It posts photos of free items on front stoops across Toronto on a daily basis. The curators, who prefer to remain anonymous, say it began as just a two-person team, but has now grown into a crowdsourced project with a following of more than 34,000.

“The community has been really helpful because we’ve been able to get submissions from all over the city. Originally it was just things that we saw, but now it’s mostly things that other people have seen. So it’s been able to have a much bigger footprint across the city,” says co-founder C.D. “I think a lot of people enjoy following along. It can be kind of like a treasure hunt where you go and look for things to submit and then look for things that have been submitted.”

The account often posts “stooping successes” where people share the items they scored for free.

A “stooping success” – a vintage couch found a new home thanks to it being shared on the Stooping Toronto Instagram page. INSTAGRAM/@stoopingtoronto

“The stooping successes are really exciting because we can see the before and after of something that was maybe thrown out or left for someone else to take and then see it in its new home,” says C.D. “It’s also nice to see that smaller things or things that maybe people wouldn’t see as much on quieter streets are getting picked up, when I think that without the account, they might be more likely to get thrown out.”

“It’s also really is rewarding to see all these stooping successes and I think that’s what keeps us going — the community that’s [been built] around stooping Toronto,” adds co-founder L.S.

She adds that seeing once discarded items given new life also encourages others to “choose secondhand first” and consider the benefits of reusing rather than buying new.

“There’s a lot of benefits to stooping and just secondhand items in general. Obviously it is more sustainable, you don’t have the packaging, you’re reusing something rather than it just going into the landfill,” she says. “There’s the community aspect of stooping and also, you can save a lot of money if you’re not buying things — either people are selling them for cheaper secondhand, or you can often get things for free.”

Both say they are excited to support Secondhand Sunday by leveraging Stooping Toronto’s large following to share their posts.

“I think the more people that can get involved and the more people in Toronto that can become aware of ways to get secondhand items and be more sustainable the better,” says C.D.

As they look forward to this weekend’s event, they have a few tips for those participating.

If you’re putting things out on your stoop, L.S. suggests making a sign that clearly indicates the items are free for the taking. He adds that details about the condition of the item — whether it is in working condition or requires repairs, for example — goes a long way in encouraging people to pick them up.

“A good tip is actually to think about what type of items you want and if it’s some bigger items, have a plan. How will you bring it home? Because some of them might need some transportation,” he adds.

For those looking for items to pickup, C.S. suggests walking on the side of the road cars are parked on so you have an unobstructed view of both sides of the street.

“Some people also suggested measuring your space and then carrying a small tape measure with you if you want to see whether something would work in your space,” she adds.

If you have nothing to share with your neighbours and aren’t looking for anything you need, there is also another way to participate in Secondhand Sunday.

“When we have the capacity, we have our volunteers connect with local community members … to see what kind of items they need, so cutlery or men’s clothing, dishes — folks would go out in the community, pick those up and drop them off at these local community organizations,” says Brooks.

“That’s also a way you can be involved in Secondhand Sunday is to to be one of those great folks who goes to a local organization and finds out what they need and goes out and looks for it that day.”

Click here for more information on Secondhand Sunday.