Spotlight: Plymouth's Own, Borrow Don't Buy, On Sustainable Consumption, Repair Cafes and How to Camp For free (Almost)
- AUP Students' Union
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Beth Evans and Borrow Don't Buy
May, 2025
BE: Can you give us a bit of background into what Borrow Don’t Buy actually is, for those who haven’t heard of it before?
BDB: Borrow Don’t Buy is Plymouth’s Library of Things! A place where you can borrow useful, fun, and often expensive items without having to buy them. Whether you need a drill for a DIY project, a chocolate fountain for a party, or a carpet cleaner to freshen up your flat, we’ve got you covered. Our aim is to save people money and space, reduce waste, and get unused items back into use!
BE: The range of items available is great, I borrowed a spot cleaner and it was very satisfying, and saved my deposit at my rental! But what is the most unusual thing you can borrow?
BDB: One of the most unusual things you can borrow from BDB is a battery-powered moth trap! It came from the Moths to a Flame project by the Art and Energy Collective, a creative response to the climate emergency that brought people together from all over the world. The project included a big art installation at COP26 in Glasgow and lent out moth traps to schools so kids could see real moths up close and learn about them. When the project wrapped up, the lovely folks at Art and Energy gifted us one of the traps so that schools and other interested people could continue to borrow it!
BE: What are your top 3 sustainability facts about using BDB?
BDB: Did you know, the average use of a drill in its lifetime is just 13 minutes - meaning most people do not need to own a drill, they just need to use a drill - and that's where access via borrowing comes in!
Over 80% of our inventory is donated items that were already in circulation meaning not only does borrowing reduce the need to buy new, but also doesn’t create the need for new items to be bought either - extending the lifetime of items not being used by their previous owners.
We’ve saved, refurbished, and redistributed approximately 400 devices as part of the GEO project that were either destined for landfill or material recycling. We estimate that, for every device, on average 3 people are positively impacted by receiving one.
BE: BDB doesn't only faciliatate borrowing does it? You also had a hand in setting up repair events in the city!
BDB: Back in 2017, BDB ran 2 Repair Cafe’s a month for 2 years, at THINQTANQ. We had a great time, and fixed hundreds of items. Due to capacity we no longer run them ourselves, but in 2019 we worked with other organisations across Plymouth to create the Repair Make & Mend Community (RMMC). From this collaboration, our partners at Plymouth Play Scrapstore began running regular repair events again! You can find out when they are on the Plymouth Repairing Community Facebook Group. You can also find upcoming repair events in the City on our Events Calendar.
BE: There’s also an economic benefit, can you give us a bit of an insight into the savings on offer - especially as a student?
BDB: Absolutely. Instead of paying £200+ for something like a carpet cleaner or projector, you can borrow it from us for a fraction of the price! Since BDB opened, borrowing the carpet cleaner has saved people approximately £45,000! If we’re talking about the whole library, and all the items, since opening, borrowers have saved around £300,00! That’s a huge saving, especially when you often only need to use these items once in a blue moon!
Not to mention, we understand students are on a tight budget, that’s why to make Borrowing even sweeter, we’ve got an extra 10% discount for our Student Borrowers!
BE: That is brilliant! So the big question then...how do you become a Borrower?
It’s a very easy process, it’s just like online shopping. You visit our website, choose the right membership for you, this is £5 for the whole year. Then you can browse through the inventory and have a look at all the things we have…
Loans are for one week, with the possibility to extend if needed (depends if anyone else has booked the item out). Then you can book a pick-up slot, come and grab your item from us at THINQTANQ (near Kitty O'Hanlon's Irish Pub and The Magistrates Court)
Then return your item on or before the due date! Super simple!
BE: Easy! For our third years, who might have items they don’t want to take back to their parents houses, or overseas if they’re international - Can people donate things to you?
BDB: Yes, we love donations, the majority of the items in our inventory were given to us as donations! If you're leaving uni or doing a clear-out, we’ll happily take your unwanted items. Especially if it’s something on our wishlist. https://borrowdontbuy.co.uk/wishlist/
We also run the Getting Everyone Online (GEO) digital inclusion project, where we refurbish unused tech and give them to Plymouth residents who are experiencing digital exclusion and having trouble accessing the internet. If you’ve got a laptop, tablet or smartphone you don’t need anymore, consider donating it to us so we can help get more people online! https://geo.borrowdontbuy.co.uk/
You can drop items off at our HQ during opening hours, but definitely email or phone us in advance; storage is tight here and we can’t take everything! Anything we can’t use in the Library, or hand out via our GEO project could be sold on our eBay for Change store, this store helps us keep our Library and GEO projects going!
BE: We’re heading into summer now and the temptation to go for a beach getaway or head of camping is growing - is this something BDB could help with?
BDB: Definitely! We’ve got tents, coolboxes, games, picnic baskets and more! Whether you’re planning a festival weekend or a spontaneous trip to the moors or the coast, we can kit you out, no need to buy everything new!
BE: To close up, can you give us a fun fact about BDB?
BDB: It all started with a torque wrench…
Back when our founder Rob was a teenager, his Dad bought him a torque wrench. Despite it surviving a flat fire, and countless house moves, he never used it all that much. He was pondering this problem with our other founder Sol, and tasked her with finding a solution! After learning about American Tool Libraries and the fantastic things they were doing, it became obvious that Plymouth could really use this kind of resource. What better way to get items back into use, than to share them with our community. Of course, over the years we’ve evolved from just being a tool library, and added all kinds of weird and wonderful items to the library.
Big thanks to Borrow Don't Buy for stopping to chat with us and for providing all of the images in this post!
Comments