BUFFALO, N.Y. — Many Western New Yorkers will spend the upcoming weekend coming together to help the environment in honor of Earth Day.
At the Tool Library on Main and West Northrup in Buffalo's University Heights Neighborhood, sustainability is a big part of their mission all year long.
Walk in and you'll see the chalkboard sign right away, exclaiming "Don't Buy! Borrow!"
That's the whole idea behind the special workshop. For memberships starting at $30 a year, people can borrow whatever they need from the library's inventory of 4,600 items to complete a home or garden project.
"Hand tools all the way up to pressure washers, weed wackers, lawnmowers," Executive Director and Founder Darren Cotton said.
However, tool lending is far from the only thing The Tool Library does to help the planet. They've once again teamed up with the Western New York Trash Mob for an Earth Day cleaning contest through April 23.
The organization's Spring Service Days will also kick off on Saturday, April 22, with a tree stewardship event at Tyler Street Gardens. Additional service days will take place every Saturday through the end of May.
There are also several Dare to Repair Cafe pop-up events scheduled for the spring months, starting with an Earth Day event at North Park Community School on Saturday, April 22 from 9 a.m. - noon.
The Dare to Repair workshops allow people to bring broken household items for volunteer fixers to repair for free.
"Our number one and number two items are lamps and vacuums, but we do small appliances, so blenders, stand mixers, we'll have a number of seamstresses there, so clothing if you have some hems, please bring those on through," Founder and Executive Director Darren Cotton said.
While getting an old item repaired may not be the first thing that comes to mind when it comes to helping the environment, but the Dare to Repair Cafes have made a significant impact over the years.
"Since 2017, we've repaired just over 500 items, and we've diverted about 5,000 pounds from the local landfill, so again these small things can have a huge impact," Cotton said.
Memberships for The Tool Library start at $30 a year. You can learn more through the organization's website.