A few weeks ago a co-worker of mine threw away a couple of large tiles that we didn't need for a project any longer into our large trash can. The next morning, the tiles were all out on our flat files. It was a little twilight zone-ish. Someone had taken them out of the trash and we all laughed about it, she grabbed them, threw them into her desk trash can and went on about her day. The next morning she came in to find them on her desk again. The people who collect our trash after hours apparently thought that those tiles really were worth something and they were not going to be a part of throwing them away.
Here's the deal...we order thousands of samples. THOUSANDS. Tile, carpet tile, laminate pieces, fabrics, solid surface counter pieces, wood door samples, you name it, we order it for meetings with clients and for colorboards. For as sustainable as we are and we make buildings to be, we are typically, as a profession, very wasteful. We have to be, it's part of our job. And we have a library FULL of materials and samples. So full in fact, it's dangerous. We keep as much as we can but at some point we just have to throw things out when we are done with them.
We also try and re-use what we can. Carpet tiles are huge and people love them for the garages, back porches, to cut up and use on shelves, etc. So we have huge carpet giveaways in our office. We also have a co-worker who takes the all of our larger tiles to Peru once a year where she does a lot of mission work to use as grave markers in their small cemetery. I'm not bragging about that, just stating that we try and re-use what we can within reason.
Here's my real story:
Yesterday I was purging my desk of old samples that never got used (that I knew we had a book in the library of) and threw some tile in the trash. I started cleaning out drawers and found a scarf I had bought at H&M for no more than $10.00 that I tore a hole in last winter and decided that it wasn't worth holding onto any longer, especially at my desk. So I chunked it. There's a hole in it.
Well, apparently they pilfered through our trash again last night and pulled out a few of the 5" tiles and the scarf and left them on my desk for me, like I had made a mistake.
They're men by the way the people who take our trash. I've never had a lady take my trash from under my desk when I've been working late.
Well, I'd like to know what this guy thinks I'm going to use a single 5" slate tile for. I can understand if I had a box of them, I could do a table or something, but really, just one?
And the scarf, if you don't think I should throw it away, I obviously don't want it and if the hole doesn't bother you, take it.
Goodwill and Salvation Army won't even want it, in case I haven't mentioned it, it's GOT A HOLE IN IT.
I moved the tile to a different trash can in hopes it gets pitched and amd I'm still staring at the scarf.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
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2 comments:
If you have a habitat for humanity resale store, give them a call. They'd probably love your building material samples.
We do have a Habitat for Humanity Store and it's right down the street from my house. Unfortunately, they've requested that you not bring one 6" square tile of one pattern and a 2" square tile of a different. It won't sell. They said they leave stuff like that out back for people to just pick up. They will take some of our tiles if we have 3 or 4 of the same 12" x 12" which is nice but like I said, we typically ship those off to Peru. We also have little things, like a 2" x 3" piece of blue acrylic, or a piece of laminate that I've used for scrapbooks and other things but it just gets hard to find a place for it all!
It turns out this morning that they're pulling all sorts of things out now instead of just samples. :) There were some empty leftover containers (not able to recycle in OKC) that got thrown in the trash yesterday that we found on our desks this morning. So I think it's becomming just a bit of a game. :)
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