The Green Shed could return, 'loosely modelled' on Swedish recycling mall

Only a month since the trucks rolled away from The Green Shed for the last time, the owners have hinted at their plans to return.

Charlie Bigg-Wither and his wife, Sandie Parkes, have been involved in resource management in the ACT since the shed first opened at Mugga Lane in 1988 under the name of Revolve – Sandie was among the staff who would scavenge around the tip face each day for saleable items.

The couple took a hiatus between 1999 and 2010 to raise their three children, but with the help of Tiny and Elaine Srejic, they built The Green Shed into a business of four sites with 84 employees and more than 20,000 visitors a week.

When they lost the ACT Government contract for the locations at Mugga Lane and Mitchell, Charlie and Sandie announced plans to retire.

But it didn’t take long before there was talk of The Green Shed returning in some form. Now we know it’s next month.

Details are scarce, but clandestine works are underway at the site of The Green Shed Underground store on City Walk in Civic.

Up until 30 May, this store was where the more valuable donated items went for sale at higher prices.

The couple recently released a mock top-secret notice to The Green Shed’s Underground Instagram page, which read: “The Green Shed is currently closed. There is no way the shop could be reopening in July. There is no way there is a plan for the future.”

An email address for “business enquiries” reveals the dripping sarcasm. And other photos on the page of various fit-out works contain captions about how it’s “a shame the shop closed forever”.

There’s more.

In response to comments on The Green Shed’s official Facebook page, the owners have flagged how they would love to create something “loosely modelled” on the world’s first recycling mall, ReTuna Återbruksgalleria, which opened in Sweden in 2015.

According to this model, donations are sorted by categories like reusable toys, furniture, clothes, decorative items and electronic devices and distributed to different recycling shops in the mall.

“The shop staff then perform a second culling, where they choose what they want to repair, fix up, convert, refine and ultimately sell,” the ReTuna Återbruksgalleria website reads.

The Green Shed has flagged a central location, like near Canberra Airport, as a possible site for this.

Region contacted Charlie for confirmation of the plans and was told, “Yes, we will be reopening”.

“Announcing soon.”

He said the recycling mall was “more on the cards somewhere” as an “aspirational goal”.

“But who knows?”