Reuse Value: The potential of community based organisations to reframe and transform the circular economy

• Reuse is conceptualized as both an embodied and relational form of value. • Community-based organizations generate circular economies that are more inclusive, adaptive, and socially embedded. • These organizations demonstrate distinct expertise in coordinating the rehoming of goods through local networks. • They also innovate by re-purposing and re-inventing reuse objects, extending their material and cultural value. • The circular economy becomes a trans-scalar, postcapitalist site where alternative economic practices take root and scale. Circular economy initiatives in Australia increasingly reference reuse, yet dominant recycling-led approaches continue to reproduce business-as-usual. This paper asks what kinds of worlds are made through reuse by examining Substation 33 and St Kilda Mums (now Our Village). Drawing on Karatani’s reading of surplus value, we develop “reuse value” as a parallax concept that captures both the embodied potential of discarded materials and the relational forms of care through which they re-enter circulation. These cases show how reuse reconfigures relations between people, materials, and places, generating social and ecological benefits that exceed conventional CE framings. We argue that recognising reuse value reveals postcapitalist possibilities within circular-degrowth trajectories.