ReuseFest returns to Mt. Lebanon
Construction Junction takes donated materials during the 2015 ReuseFest.
A donation is loaded during the 2015 ReuseFest.
Plenty of bicyles were donated during the 2015 ReuseFest.
As the procrastination to complete spring cleaning in many South Hills homes continues, the Pennsylvania Resources Council is providing an opportunity to get rid of the unwanted clutter.
The fifth annual ReuseFest is returning to Jefferson Middle School in Mt. Lebanon for a dropoff event from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, June 18, for seven nonprofit organizations to collect a wide variety of materials in an effort to further their “green” initiatives.
“This is a clear value to the organizations, but it’s also beneficial for the consumer to have one place to drop off many different materials,” said Justin Stockdale, PRC western regional director. “If they’ve got to take separate trips to all of these organizations, they are far less likely to do it.”
The nonprofits involved are Animal Rescue League Shelter and Wildlife Center, Catholic Charities, Construction Junction, Free Ride, Global Links, Goodwill and Off the Floor Pittsburgh.
All the materials donated at ReuseFest will be reused in some fashion, whether they be resold, repurposed or given to those in need by the nonprofit organizations.
The event is being sponsored by UPMC.
In PRC’s four years of doing the collection around western Pennsylvania, returning to the South Hills was a no-brainer for Stockdale, who witnessed low attendance during last year’s event at Heinz Field.
“Part of it was just simple logistics,” he said. “There are some locations that can control the volume of traffic and also be in a diverse demographic. For a lot of our partners, they don’t have much access to this particular population in the South Hills. We see it as a reuse desert. We want to bring the organizations to a place that can be most productive to them.”
Materials collected will include bikes, medical supplies, usable building materials, clothing, household goods, gently used furniture and mattresses, baby supplies and pet supplies.
Over the past four years, the PRC has collected and diverted tens of thousands of pounds of materials from local landfills, and more than 720 households have participated in ReuseFest.
The new nonprofit joining ReuseFest is Catholic Charities, which will look to collect kitchen, bedding and bath supplies, and especially materials for babies.
“We think it’s really important that they specialize in that particular stream of collection,” said Stockdale. “We tend to hand baby stuff down, but there is a limit to the hand-me-down exchange that normally lands with one person. Some items have a ton of life. It’s just a matter of getting them to the right people.”