New Electronics Recycling Law

Recently while reading the Battenkill Business Journal I read an interesting article regarding a new law that has taken effect dealing with electronic waste.  The law took effect on January 1st and banned most if not all electronic waste from being placed in landfills.  After a short waiting period, which ends June 30th, there will be a number of locations that will be set up around the state that will accept these items for free.  The plan is to have at least 51 of these locations statewide, of which at least 3 will be in Bennington,  As of the printing of the article, they have not been announced yet, though I will be sure to publish them as soon as I hear about them.

The cost of the recycling of these items will be covered by a fee that is and will continue to be assessed to electronic manufacturers.  The list included in the article, though not complete, includes computers, TV’s, cell and regular phones, VCR’s and DVD players, power cords and chargers. 

I for one am pretty excited about this new law.  In the past I have to charge my customers for the disposal of most if not all of the items above.  Now I will have a way to dispose of them for free, which will save them money and allow me to do the right thing environmentally.

A real treasure hunt……

My wife and I are invited to a wedding of a friend and the wedding has a theme.  The theme is set in the 1940′s, back when they had low key, pretty simple weddings, usually in someone’s house.  It was not uncommon to have the occasion be pot luck.  Well my wife and I thought it would be fun to dress in attire from that time.  My wife found a nice dress and I purchased a military uniform.  The only thing the uniform was missing was a tie. 

Over the 10 years we have lived in Arlington, we have passed a business in Manchester that advertised “military surplus” among other things.  Now I cannot tell you how many times we have driven by this place, but it has been many.  Well today after church I decided it was time to go.  The name of the business is Wessners Surplus and Collectibles and it is located on routes 11/30, just East of Manchester Center. 

Upon entering the store I was at first overwhelmed, there was stuff everywhere.  It was immediately evident that this was not your average store, but a throw-back to the old days.  After settling into my surroundings, I thought that even if I did not find what I was looking for, I was going to have one heck of a time looking around.  I was not disappointed. 

Be warned there is not much logic to the way things are laid out, there is literally stuff everywhere and the aisles are very narrow.  From the large front room, there are doorways that lead you back into the depths, rooms that were cold and drafty on this rainy day. 

Is there an inventory system you ask?  I can only answer that with a laugh.  There is a hand-written sign that reads “if you do not see what you want just ask”.  What I can tell you is that if you have an hour or 2 to kill on a bad weather day (or even a nice day) and you enjoy rummaging, you will most certainly not be disappointed.  

So whether you are in the market for an officer’s jacket, a ratchet set, a zipper, an oil filter, or a “B” rated chinese movie on VHS, you can find it here. 

I did not find the tie I was looking for, nor did I find a volt meter, which I thought of while I was there, but that did not matter.  What mattered is that I had a blast walking around, amazed at the plethora of disorganized things that each room contained.  I will be back and next time I am going to bring my son (and hopefully my brother).

A new kind of Super Hero…….

I have been a subscriber to Waste & Recycling News for over a year now and they often have interesting articles on new things that companies are doing to make strides in reuse and recycling.  In the November issue they introduced their readers to a new kind of Super Hero.  George Global was created by Peter Gorin and John Magno as an entertaining way to introduce children t0 “recycling and small responsible actions”.  Check out the links below to read the W&RN article and the website for George Global.  It is never too early to introduce the next generation to the ways of making our planet a better place to live. 

http://www.wasterecyclingnews.com/atourdisp2.html?cat=25&id=1290462279

http://www.georgeglobal.net/

Memories of diffucult jobs….

So I take you back to October of 2007. I found out about a house a friend of mine, who was the executor, was getting ready for sale. Her job was to clean out the contents of the house so it could be listed.

The timing was perfect. Just a few months earlier I had started doing clean outs again. When we moved to Vermont from New Jersey in 2001, I took some time off to focus on my family and our new home. With one large and one small job earlier in the year, I was looking for something new.

She gave me directions and told me a little about the house and the woman who had lived there. Evidentally she was a compulsive shopper and the house was full of stuff that needed to go. I was thinking, “how bad could it be?”.  Well I can tell you it was far worse than I could have ever imagined.

Upon entering the house I was given a tour of the first and second floors. There was stuff piled everywhere. They had already gotten started on the first floor, so it was not that bad. The second floor was another story.

Upon walking up to the second floor, there were 2 bedrooms, one on either side of the landing. You could barely get inside either room because of the piles of clothes.  There was a small “path” into each room.  Even the dressers were concealed.

So the job began – to finish what was started.  Working with my friend we bagged up what clothes could be saved and boxed up all the nick nacks and kitchen items.  Also there were some pieces of furniture that were worth saving. 

After tackling the upper floors, my next job was the garage and basement apartment, which was only accesible from a sliding glass door adjacent to the garage. I started with the garage and quickly got that under control. Now onto the apartment.

When I approached the sliders, there were curtains drawn across the opening, to keep me from seeing inside. I unlocked the door and opened the curtains and I was face to face with the largest mass of things I had ever seen. From the smell of things I knew I was going to need a mask for protection.

The pile started at my waist and like a tide of water, continued into the room and only got higher. My first reaction was to just to take everything and throw it in a dumpster, I felt overwhelmed!!!! But wait, I am Matt Granger from Resourceful Recycling, that is not my style at all, that is not how I roll.

So I just started to pick away at the pile, sorting things out and saving what I could, making piles in the garage. There was a dumpster on site for the things that I could not save. Many things were moldy beyond salvage and others were chewed by mice, a real mess.

A short time later I cleared a spot, so I could at last enter the room, a small triumph. “One small step for man…..”

Little by little I chiseled away at the pile. Shoes and clothes piled here, Christmas ornaments and golf clubs over there. One thing was for sure, this woman knew how to shop!!!! There were so many things that were still in the original packaging, purchased, then delivered and thrown into the room and added to the pile, never to be seen again……..until Matty G came along.

After two days, I had the room cleaned out to the point where I could get to the back. In the process I found a refrigerator, still pretty well stocked with food that was obviously inedible. No decision necessary there, straight to the dumpster.  Thankfully once I was done, I only had to broom clean the area. 

The house went on the market a short time later and was purchased at a fair price. I had heard that the people that bought it were renovating it to use as a rental. When I went back to check out the progress about a year later, the house had been transformed into something beautiful. They had completely changed the exterior and the interior and added a new deck.

In the end I was happy that I took on the job, it was a real sense of accomplishment.  Many loads of clothes were removed and donated.  I was even able to work in a few Freecycle transactions, one right from the house.  This job showed me that even jobs that seem impossible at first can be completed with a slow and methodical approach.

Welcome to my blog

Well, like they say “here goes nothing”……this is my first attempt at blogging, my goal is to share my experiences with reuse and recycling through my clean out jobs and my daily life. Please check in here occasionally to see what I have been up to.