BRING’s Education Department educates, inspires and entertains thousands of Lane County kids and adults each year on a bare bones budget. Help us stretch those precious dollars with cash donations or usable equipment. With your help we can reach more people with the Reduce, Reuse, Laptop computer: capable of supporting Windows 98 or better. Make our educator work between classroom presentations! Taking work along would decrease trips back to the office, conserving resources.
Slide projector: Help us equip another educator so we can do more presentations during high demand
periods.Slide projector case: We’ve patched the old one for seven years. We really do need to replace it.
Teaching Resources: Books, tapes, videos that teach waste reduction, resource conservation, recycling, reuse or repair. We maintain a library for community use and welcome donations to augment our collection.
Tools: These aren’t just for education, all programs need them. Ours were stolen last winter and we’re still trying to replace them. Wrenches, crowbars, mechanics tools, wood working tools, garden tools, craft tools, staple guns, riveters, etc.
We are NOT the dump!
What we want is building materials and related items--tools, store fixtures and fencing for example. What we get is a very different matter. Electric organs, boats, car parts,
Nor can we take things that have no use to someone else, such as broken or cracked plastic lawn furniture (or broken or cracked plastic anything), leaky coolers, stinky mattresses or moldy carpet. If you show up wanting to donate items we really can’t deal with, please be prepared to take them to the proper destination,We are trying to reduce the volume of unsuitable donations that come through our gates (or get dumped after hours….) so that shopping for reuse with us will be a positive and inspiring experience. Please help us by calling before you donate, take a “what we accept” sheet, or check our website for guidelines. We can usually refer you to the proper place to take your discards.
And because of our mounting garbage bills, there are some items we have to charge a small fee to accept. This covers the cost of dismantling things that have limited resale potential and have to be scrapped out. Metal frame windows are 50¢ each, toilets $2, sinks $1.
We know you want to recycle and we want to help you. Please have patience as we try to do our very best with the stuff that you no longer want—Damien Czech
and Protect the Watershed
For example, backyard burning—a common method of household waste disposal for millions of Americans— contaminates our air, land, and water with harmful pollutants including lead, mercury, and dioxins. Airborne particulates containing toxic chemicals settle on soil and water and are then absorbed by crops, consumed by fish, cattle and humans. Even burning such innocuous materials as yard trimmings and paper products contribute to the formation of toxic chemicals. In fact, EPA estimates that by 2004, backyard burning will become the single largest contributor of dioxin emissions in the U.S. Encouraging community members to compost, recycle, or drop off trash at the local transfer station is important to our community’s health, and the environment.
Improper disposal of household hazardous waste also pollutes our water and threatens wildlife.
One of the most important steps we can take is to REDUCE our waste. Even though Lane County residents are among the state’s best recyclers (averaging 52% recycling rate in 2000), per capita waste has increased 19% since 1995. We not only have to recycle, but we must work toward reducing our total waste. A little effort goes a long way. Lane County Waste Management estimates that if each person in the county reduces their waste by just one-percent – 30 lbs per year – it would keep 5,000 tons of material out of the local landfills.
So next time you’re throwing something in the trash, think about where it will end up and how it affects you, the environment and the community. Remember, we all live in the watershed.—Contributed by Swati S. Thomas, Rural Community Assistance Corporation
| A Farewell Full of Thanks Graphic artist Cathy Seltzer, our long time volunteer newsletter layout person, is retiring. Cathy did a wonderful job of updating our presentation and making our newsletter easier to read. She was endlessly patient about inserting our inevitable last minute, must-have news items. We’ve so appreciated her help in getting UsedNews out to our 8,500 readers. Though her shoes will be hard to fill, we’re hoping there’s someone out there who would enjoy the challenge of putting together the most comprehensive reduce, reuse and recycle information publication in Lane County. Call us if that’s you! |
