Purgstall shop rescues discarded goods and supports people with mental health conditions

Lower Austria’s first ReVital shop is giving discarded goods a second life in Purgstall, where items are refurbished and sold at affordable prices. The project also offers work opportunities to people with mental health conditions, ORF reports.

Once a week, 20-year-old Eyob and 44-year-old Doris join staff from the Social Business Service (SBS), a social enterprise, to collect usable items from the waste collection centre in Purgstall an der Erlauf, in the district of Scheibbs. The project is run with the Scheibbs Waste Management Association, which is responsible for the centre.

Recent finds have included a child’s bicycle with an Anna-Elsa design, a bar stool, a dartboard, crockery, walking aids and a mixer marked “motor faulty”. Furniture and electrical appliances are also commonly collected. Items linked to hygiene, such as mattresses and toilet parts, are not passed on.

The goods are taken to SBS in Purgstall, where they are cleaned, inspected and prepared for resale. In the project’s first six weeks, about 1,000 kilograms of usable goods were saved from disposal. “Every tonne, every kilogram that we don’t have to send for disposal saves money. That’s our benefit,” said Thomas Prenner, head of the Scheibbs Waste Management Association.

The ReVital shop at SBS is the first of its kind in Lower Austria. It was established on the initiative of, and with funding from, the state of Lower Austria and environmental associations. The concept has been running in Upper Austria since 2009, where about 1,100 tonnes of used goods are reused each year, Prenner said.

Eyob and Doris are also working towards joining the open labour market. A multidisciplinary team supports them, including social workers, a registered nurse with psychiatric training, psychotherapists, educators and skilled tradespeople. Eyob said having a regular routine and a fixed schedule was important to him. He hopes to begin an apprenticeship in a trade after his time at SBS.

Doris joined the programme three weeks ago. She said she had learned to look after herself and not push herself too hard. Her goal is to support older people as a daily living companion.

SBS currently employs 48 people with mental health conditions. Half are taking part in vocational rehabilitation, while the others receive support at a day centre. The organisation also offers a woodworking workshop, sewing, gardening and a kitchen, among other activities. Participants can stay in the programme for up to 15 months.

“We have many areas of work, from restoring furniture and repairing bicycles to data entry, the online shop and sales at the ReVital shop,” said SBS director Werner Pitzl. He described these roles as opportunities for participants to develop skills and find out which kinds of work suit them.