In September, Denice Wilkins of Tweed Green-Up wrote to the Tweed Council to propose a Curbside Free-for-All (see that submission here), to facilitate the transfer of unwanted usable items to good homes instead of landfill. The proposal is winding its way through Municipal Government, and below is her follow-up submission to the Infrastructure Committee. Watch this blog for updates!!
Dear Members of the Tweed Infrastructure Committee,
When it’s -20 outside it’s hard to remember that Spring will be here before we know it. With this in mind, we are hoping that starting this April you will make Tweed the first village in Comfort Country to divert more waste from our landfill by supporting the idea of a “Curbside Free-for-All” that we submitted to Council last September.
Since that time I have discovered that the Waste Reduction Office of the City of Peterborough has been successfully running this type of program, which they call “Reusable Exchange Weekends,” since 1991! In their program, residents are encouraged to put reusable items they no longer want out at the curb for others to take on five designated weekends from April through September. In discussions and e-mails with Virginia Swinson, Waste Reduction Officer, she confirmed what is stated on their website, “Although there is no quantitative data on diversion rates attributable to these events, by all reports they are very successful and most items set at the curb are taken by others for reuse.”
As opposed to what we originally suggested, Peterborough runs their events over the weekend rather than in association with garbage pick-up day. This seems like a good idea because more people would have time to go out in search of treasures and when the events became well known, people might even come from outside the community.
Below is a typical press release that is sent out a week prior to each event in Peterborough.
Reusables Exchange Weekend – May 25-27
The first Reusables Exchange Event for 2007 is happening this weekend in the City of Peterborough! Take this terrific opportunity to clear your basement or garage of odds and ends that have been taking up space for years, but never seem to get used.
Beginning this Friday evening, set any articles you think someone else might use out at the curb in front of your home. Over the weekend, people are encouraged to cruise the streets and help themselves to any of these goodies, free of charge. They have until Sunday evening to take what they like. Anything remaining after 7:00 pm Sunday May 27th must be taken back in by the owner; the City will not be collecting these items.
Everyone wins – free disposal for the “giver”; free goodies for the “taker.” And less waste in our landfill site. For more details, call the Waste Reduction Office at 742-7777 Ext. 1657.
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Tweed Green-Up is willing to help implement this program (i.e. write an article for the paper to introduce the events etc.) if you like, so it will not add more to your workload or more to our landfill!
This is a program in which everybody wins! Let’s be the first in Comfort Country to run a similarly successful program here in Tweed – starting this Spring!
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Denice Wilkins
Tweed Green-Up
