I'm so annoyed.

We're in the midst of a major rehaul on our uhl street shack. It's an old house and over the past year my husband has been working hard to totally redo the place so that we can eventually refinance for a much needed influx of money. What's been done so far, on limited funds, is incredible, and Stephen has reused many of the materials that were torn down. Century old lathe from the walls was painstakingly refurbished for a gorgeous vaulted ceiling upstairs and pretty much anything that can be recycled WILL be used.

So the other day, Stephen and my brother-in-law went to the dump with a load of old siding and other scrap that cannot be used. While there were there, another truck pulled up with a LOT of plywood and 2x4s that were in really good shape (still with nails in them but those are easily knocked out).

So Stephen, seeing a huge amount of perfectly good materials about to be wasted in a landfill, began to pull some out and put them in his truck - Why waste perfectly good wood? This stuff should be RECYCLED! That kind of waste is a sin, in my opinion. So the landfill bulldozer man began yelling at Stephen that he wasn't allowed to do that. Can you believe that? OK - let's destroy the earth a little bit more and bury this huge load of beautiful, useable wood in the landfill because bulldozer man says it's against the rules. Because you can always get more at Lowe's right?

It boggles my mind.

Just felt the need to vent.

I sense a letter to the editor coming soon.

uhl, I've been working on a planning project for the renovation and relocation of our center for environmental studies. I am dumbfounded sometimes by Facilities being stubborn about recycling and salvaging perfectly good material. We would have a more sustainable, more interesting, and probably more beautiful building if we were allowed to salvage materials from all the other construction going on campus. We are such a wasteful society.

It boggles my mind as well.

I wonder if landfills in other areas have spaces where people can leave things for others to potentially recycle? It seems so obvious.

You know, I do read a lot about people salvaging materials from junkyards. Perhaps it's the distinction between a landfill and a junkyard that's causing the problem.

Are you adding any other green features to the place?

as much as we can recycle, we are recycling
it's more affordable because we don't have the funds to go out and buy things new, and even if we did, this just makes more sense

the torn down lathe for the ceiling was a painstaking process, but worth it in the end