Jasper could have a new second-hand store by late next spring.

A business plan is currently being developed by Janet Cooper, the municipality’s environmental stewardship co-ordinator, for a Jasper Reuse-It Centre, to be located in the industrial area of town.

Once established, the centre will accept donations of furniture, household items and clothes. It will then sell the items and put the profit toward community programming. 

Cooper said there is a great need for a centre like this in town.

“If somebody wants to get rid of a couch or some furniture, there’s really nowhere to donate it to and often it will end up going out to the landfill even if it’s perfectly good, just because there’s no options,” she said.

“What we’re trying to do is provide a service to the community – an inexpensive place to go for seasonal staff, who come in and out, and a way to keep stuff out of the landfill.”

Another part of that service will be a pick-up service for people who have large donations, but don’t have the means to transport them. 

“A lot of people are stuck because they don’t have trucks. I think that’s a service that’s really needed in town,” said Cooper.

A reuse-it centre was one of the top three program goals identified by the Environmental Stewardship Advisory Committee last year. A centre would also meet the goals of the Jasper Community Sustainability Plan, by minimizing waste, promoting community and providing social programs to support the quality of life of Jasperites.

For the first two years, the centre will be a pilot project, subsidized by environmental stewardship funding. Once it is sustainable, it will become a municipal operation overseen by environmental services. The centre would be run by a mixture of staff and volunteers. 

Cooper said she has researched similar reuse-it centres in other Canadian municipalities and they are extremely successful. She noted that the one in Whistler, B.C. even generates enough profit that it subsidizes the municipality’s community services.

That doesn’t happen over night, though. Cooper expects it will take between three and five years for Jasper’s centre to generate revenue.

“At this point I’m just hoping for ours to be self sustaining; then if we’re ever in the position where we’re generating profit, it will be set up so that it flows back into community programs.”

The only other thrift shop in town is located in the United Church basement. 

Cooper said many people have raised concerns that a reuse-it centre will take business away from the existing shop. 

But Wayne Kennedy from the thrift shop said there is actually a great need for another outlet in town because the United Church receives far more donations than it can fit in the church basement.

Each year, because of space constraints, the shop ends up sending seven to nine truck loads of goods to Edmonton to be sold by the Canadian Diabetes Association.

“Jasper desperately needs a second outlet in town for used goods,” said Kennedy, who, like Cooper, hopes that the Reuse-It Centre will help reduce the amount of goods being shipped to Edmonton.

Cooper said she is looking forward to partnering with the church to make both ventures successful.

“I think it has the potential to be very successful.”.