Promoting Council Facilities - Brisbane City Council & City of Tea Tree Gully

Brisbane City Council hosted 2 Tip Shop sales and Tea Tree Gully organised a library sale to promote reuse, waste reduction and other council facilities and waste services, learn more.

Objective: Brisbane City Council used Garage Sale Trail to 

• Promote reuse and waste reduction to councils 
• Promote Council tip shops

​Brisbane City Council worked with the team at Garage Sale Trail and used the tools provided to encourage residents and local community groups to host garage sales. The City also hosted two Tip Shop sales, using the program to effectively promote other council waste services.

​As a result of Brisbane City Council’s involvement in the program, more than 1,600 sellers participated at 640 registered sales across the City, redistributing more than 3,800 shopping trollies worth of items on the day.

​"​Thanks to everyone who joined the national Garage Sale Trail in Brisbane on Saturday 24 October 2015. Council was proud to support Garage Sale Trail to encourage reuse for a cleaner, greener Brisbane."
Lyn Comiskey, Program Officer Education, Waste and Resource Recovery Services from Brisbane City Council

Brisbane City Council staffer Lyn Comiskey shares some top pointers for making their involvement in Garage Sale Trail and the Tip Shop sales a success:

• We registered the two Tip Shops as participating garage sales on the Garage Sale Trail website at the beginning of the campaign
• The tip shops are open every weekend from 8am to 4pm and we ran normal operating hours for the Garage Sale Trail event
• Additional flyers were printed from the Council Dashboard for distribution through libraries and at the tip shops themselves
• Posters were displayed in Tip Shops in the weeks leading up to the day
• Media and editorial was used with promotional messaging that aligns with the Garage Sale Trail campaign, including a strong focus on tip shop messaging - ‘reuse’ and ‘recycling’.
• Internal communication was important too – we encouraged other areas of Council to share information about the campaign through their networks
• On social media we used Facebook promoted posts and Twitter, using the hashtags #reusebne and #garagesaletrail.  We also set up boards on Pinterest around the themes of ‘Reuse’, tip shops , Garage Sale Trail and Recycling Art, as well as sharing images on Instagram
• Information about Garage Sale Trail and the Tip Shops were included on the Council website in our upcoming event listings, MRECs and page content

​Sample Promotional Messaging

Here is an example of the promotional messaging which ran on our Visible Ink website

Date: Saturday 25th October
Location: Various locations throughout Brisbane, including BCC tip shops.
The national Garage Sale Trail is on 25 October, it’s time to plan your treasure trail or register your own garage sale.
Council’s tip shops are registered as the biggest garage sales in Brisbane and the 2014 Recycling Art Competition finalists will be using the trail in search of treasures.
For more information, visit the Garage Sale Trail portal on the Brisbane City Council website, or to find out about other registered venues check out garagesaletrail.com.au

​Website Promotional Messaging

Website Promotional Messaging Example
File Size:	203 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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Brisbane Council Sponsorship Profile:
 
Brisbane City Council sponsors projects that benefit Brisbane residents and help achieve our Vision for Brisbane. We'll be featuring some of our recent sponsorships and highlighting why Council was proud to sponsor these events.
 
Garage Sale Trail
In October 2015, Council was proud to once again sponsor Garage Sale Trail, a community reuse event, to encourage Brisbane residents to reuse household goods by joining other residents in having their own garage sale. Garage Sale Trail calls for people to join thousands of others and register their own garage sale on National Garage Sale Trail day.
 
Good for event organisers
Council's sponsorship helped make it possible to hold this highly successful national event, which is powered by councils across Australia, and enabled Brisbane residents to participate in the national Garage Sale Trail.
 
Great for the community
The Garage Sale Trail is a fun event that encourages community connections and fundraising, as well as the reuse of second-hand items, which helps to reduce waste to landfill and creates a clean, green city.
 
Southside mum, Michelle, says: "The Garage Sale Trail motivated us to de-clutter our garage and house. Our neighbours also had a garage sale and invited their friends to come over and join in and we all shared lunch together. The children also ended up swapping toys they were selling, so they were very happy!"
 
Why this sponsorship is important for Brisbane City Council
Council encourages all Brisbane residents to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill by encouraging a culture of reuse. This can be done by reusing household items, buying from op shops or Council’s tip shops, or donating quality reusable items to Council’s tip shops via Council’s free resource recovery centres.

​City of Brisbane Media Examples

Tea Tree Gully Library Sale

The City of Tea Tree Gully took part in Garage Sale Trail for the first time in 2015, with outstanding results, Topping the charts with the highest number of sales in the State. They share their key learnings for organising a sale at your local library.

TOP TIPS FOR ORGANISING A SALE AT A LIBRARY

• Use ex-library stock
• Ask for donations of books from community and staff (everyone loves a clean out)
• Ask for baked goods from library, council or volunteers for sale 
• Ask local men’s group to host a sausage sizzle
• Ask local groups who meet in the library if they would like to have a trading table to sell their crafts or other goods at the sale
• Ask all staff if they have items they would like to sell (you will need storage) – give remaining stuff to opp shop (make staff aware)
• Use sale to raise money for a charity or library
• Play music at the sale
• Ask volunteers to help you at sale
• Have a colour-in table or badge-making or children playing music

This case study was kindly shared by Lyn Comiskey, Program Officer Education, Waste and Resource Recovery Services from Brisbane City Council & Kelly Morris, Cultural Coordinator at City of Tea Tree Gully Council.