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Creation Station: A Juncture for Reuse and Recycling
Recently, Dee's Delights, a local business in Dearborn County, Indiana, was stuck with several hundred extra yardsticks. Rather than pitching them with the trash, the business owner saw another use for the grooved yardsticks—playing card holders. After donating the yardsticks to Creation Station, both local elementary schoolchildren and nursing home residents are enjoying Dee's donation.
Creative reuse of materials is what Creation Station is all about. The Dearborn County program collects reusable materials from local businesses and residents and redistributes them to foster creativity and education in local schools and nonprofit organizations. Through outreach, education, volunteer work, and coordination with its 191 participants, Creation Station diverted nearly 3,500 pounds of materials from the landfill in 2005.
Creation Station accepts a wide variety of supplies for arts and crafts, such as cardboard, ceramics, corkboards, and egg cartons. The program also encourages donations of many other materials—everything from tape reels and packing peanuts to tile, wine corks, and wall paper.
Maury Hudson, an educator for Indiana's Solid Waste Management District, says that coordination with other existing recycling and reuse programs was key to Creation Station's success. "Networking with other districts was a huge help," she recalls. "Monroe County loaned us their program guidelines for ideas, and I toured a computer reuse center in Cincinnati. Then we just put the word out. I asked teachers what they needed and businesses what they could donate."
What began as a small effort in December 2004 expanded rapidly, outgrowing its first home and gaining recognition in just one year of operation. Hudson's work at Creation Station was recently recognized by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management when she received the 2006 Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence. Hudson is constantly working to bring new materials into Creation Station and spread the word about what is available to teachers and nonprofit organizations. Every June, at the Lawrenceburg County Fair, she promotes the program and provides an opportunity for kids to experience the fun of creating "trash to treasure" crafts. During the week-long fair, she hosts a different project each night, making everything from watering cans out of plastic containers to picture frames out of CD cases.
Creation Station owes its success to the hard work of local volunteers of all ages. Hudson is confident that the program will grow, and hopes to be an inspiration to other communities across the country.
The Creation Station and other programs like it exemplify the types of activities encouraged by the Resource Conservation Challenge within the national priority area of Municipal Solid Waste Recycling.
For More Information:
- Resource Conservation Challenge national priority area - Municipal Solid Waste Recycling
- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - EPA's Web site providing information and publications
- WAste Reduction Model (WARM) - a model to help solid waste planners and organizations track and voluntarily report greenhouse gas emissions reductions and energy savings from several different waste management practices.