Visiting a Reuse Center in Your Community

A reuse center is a large area that stores and displays reusable donated and salvaged items for resale. By offering these items at reduced prices for consumers to reuse, it's keeping them out of our already overflowing landfills. At the same time they are offering odds and ends of reusable and ever-changing stuff at lower prices. Examples of some of the ever-changing reusable items might be: Scrap lumber, old wood-frame windows, bathtubs, sinks, doors, shelving, kitchen cabinets, mobile-home window screens, plywood, wood paneling and sometimes even wallpaper and paint.

Could anyone donate to a reuse center?

Yes! Some items you might have from a home remodeling project could be donated, such as: leftover pieces of building materials. Tools, lawn and garden equipment, furniture or even working appliances are items that someone might use. Call your local reuse center and ask about their guidelines for donations.

A free reuse center?

Some communities have free reuse centers. Clean and workable/usable items are donated here for use by anyone that needs them. Donate some of your leftover home-improvement items and while you're there check around and see if there is something you might take home for your own use. Some basic rules apply: Keep the place neat and organize your donated items for others to view.

Projects for reuse center items!

Items that are no longer usable to someone else could come in handy in your green growing adventures. Those old donated wood frame windows from a remodeling project could be used in a back-yard cold frame. Make the whole thing yourself. A simple wood frame box with no top and no bottom could easily be put together with lumber scraps. Use old window frames as suncatcher lids. Adjust the temperature manually by lifting the windows on warm days and leaving them closed when it's cold. If your area is windy, add some hinges and latches, and look for them used at the reuse center. Your bottomless cold frame sits directly on the ground and the young seedlings grow inside. When it's planting time you'll have your favorite vegetable plants ready to set out in the garden.

Fencing at the reuse center?

Persistence could pay off here. Check often for new items, for even a small 20 feet section of fencing might serve as a cheap deer-deterrent for your tomatoes. With some metal stakes and a little time your vegetable plants should be able to grow and produce in an "animal-safe environment". At the same time that piece of scrap fencing that could have taken up space in a landfill will instead have an important job in your garden for a long time.

Recycle and reuse!

Sources:

www.thereusecenter.com
www.recycling-guide.org.uk/reuse.html
www.antiochne.edu/studentsvs/reuse.cfm