"One's Trash is Another's Treasure"

This flower was made from reams of old tissue paper at the Materials Exchange. This is so much more fun than letting it rot in a dump. You could make giant-size flowers for a party, create a fun kids’ project (create a land of tissue paper!) or use it to wrap gifts.

Are you adding to your home, or do you like fun projects? Are you an artist who is always looking for materials to work with, someone who just likes to scavenge, or an underfunded teacher? Any of the above people would appreciate the Hudson Valley Materials Exchange. It’s kinda like Freecycling (for those who don’t know what that is, read up here!) but in this case, there’s a permanent home for all sorts of unused, unloved, but really interesting stuff. And it’s not exactly free, but it’s really, really cheap. And some of it IS free.

The idea is that commercial lots are taken here instead of the landfill. So when a kitchen gets ripped apart, or a deck taken out, or when stores are cleaning out their inventory, it goes to the Materials Exchange.

There’s lots of building materials (like decking,windows and doors) but there’s also art supplies (like tubes, file cabinets, cardboard boxes, picture frame molding and lots of paint) and random stuff. I found carbonate rings that you can make mobiles out of, or wear as bracelets! You can search to find if there’s one near you; this Exchange is located in the Hudson Valley near Stewart airport- a day trip from NYC, convenient to Westchester and Fairfield Counties.

car, carbon, cardboard, cleaning, Home, kids, NYC, paper, party, spring, Tea, trash

Starre Vartan is the founder and editor-in-chief of Eco-Chick and author of The Eco-Chick Guide to Life (St. Martin's Press). A problogger and oft-quoted green living expert who has been featured in the NYTimes, Elle, Glamour and Whole Living, she is a contributor to The Huffington Post, Inhabitat, and Hearst's The Daily Green, and is currently editor-at-large for Coco Eco Magazine. An active ecofashionista, she has style edited for Plenty magazine and coordinated runway shows. She splits her time between Connecticut and NYC and calls Sydney, Australia her second home, even though it was her first (as that's where she was born and most of her family resides). When not writing, blogging, or researching her next book, she is trailrunning, trying to cook, or snowboarding.

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2 Comments on “"One's Trash is Another's Treasure"”

Alotta Errata

I actually reuse my tissue paper. I collect it from the piles of gifts after we’re done on the holidays or birthdays or whatever occasion it is, fold it up, and save it for next year until it’s just too shabby. I save gift bags too.

08/03/06 » 10:55 am »
Katia Gitkow

I use buttons, giftrapping rubans, shoelaces and other used materials to create jewelry! http://www.adajito.blogspot.com

Katia

11/20/06 » 2:49 pm »