What’s the drill? Tool library to expand
AUNIQUE Maryhill community organisation that lets its members borrow tools is planning to expand across the city. The Glasgow Tool Library (GTL) has been renting out equipment and tools to its members for free since 2019 from their base in Maryhill’s Garscube Road.
Now they hope to make moves in other areas of the city by forming partnerships.
Co-founder of the organisation Chris Strachan said: “People sign up and they reserve our tools online and then come and pick them up at the drop-off point and leave them at the collection point.
“We are now looking for partners to collaborate with to launch a new service.
“We are launching a new Hub and Spoke delivery service with new drop-off and collection points. We are based in Maryhill and we got funding to deliver this new service in the East and West.
“This is why we are looking for anchor organisations we could collaborate with so they could provide us with some of the services we need and in exchange, we can bring our Tool Library service to them.” GTL are looking for other community-led groups who have available space and are established in their local area.
As part of the expansion, they are also hiring a new member of staff and hope to buy a van.
With these new resources, they hope to reach more people who might use their services.
The Glasgow man added: “There are lots of benefits, one is that they get very affordable and exclusive access to expensive resources, our membership is a pay-what-you-can system, so we have a few different options but once you are a member, all the tools are free to borrow.
“By joining and borrowing one tool, most people save money. Some people save hundreds of pounds over the year but collectively, last year I think people saved between £70,000 and £100,000.
“So, they save a lot of money, they also save a lot of space in their house by not having to store these things and it gives the opportunities to build things in their houses and change the places that matter to them.”
Aside from the financial benefits, the founders of GTL also aim to challenge people to think of the environment and society.
He added: “There is also the environmental part to it because there is a carbon cost to each tool, so borrowing it instead of buying it helps. It’s not very much per tool bit if you add it up across the city, so if more and more people use the service, it starts to have a big impact.
“It also gets people a connection to a community, an accessible link to the circular economy that changes people’s perception of ownership and access to resources.”