Buildings & Grounds Maintenance

For more reuse ideas and information, please see our webpage on Reuse at http://recycling.stanford.edu/5r/reuse.html

Q: How can I find places to donate usable items to?
A: You can call the Santa Clara County Recycling Hotline at 1-800-533-8414 or visit their webpage at http://recyclestuff.org. They will direct you to reuse and recycling opportunities for items not included in our program.

The City of Palo Alto's Recyclopedia is a very useful tool to assist you in your efforts to reduce and recycle. It can be found on the web at: http://archive.cityofpaloalto.org/forms/recyclopedia/

Find out how to donate items to local groups and discover locations to get used items for free or for reduced cost including construction and salvage materials and arts and crafts for creative reuse at one of the most comprehensive local reuse guides on the internet. It can be found on San Mateo County’s RecycleWorks webpage at: http://www.recycleworks.org/reuse_center.html. This center contains information for local residents, businesses, schools and nonprofits.

Q: I noticed that when everyone moves out at the end of the year,there is a lot of good stuff in the dumpsters. Does any one sort through them to remove the good stuff and give it to charity?
A: No! Anything that is placed in a garbage dumpster or a large debris box goes to the landfill and is buried in the ground forever. Student Housing has a very successful Give and Go Program that helps make it easy to donate reusables items to local charities. Don't forget to put your newspapers, school papers, shoeboxes, and empty cardboard boxes in the recycling bins!

Q: What is Freecycle?
A: The Freecycle Network™ is made up of many individual groups across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer. Membership is free. There are 3,494 Freecycle Communities in the world, including local ones in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Los Altos, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale. The Network provides individuals and non-profits an electronic forum to "recycle" unwanted items. One person's trash can truly be another's treasure! The web address is http://freecycle.org/.

Q: What can I do with old skis?
A: If you have old, used winter sports equipment taking up space in your garage, you could try trading or selling it on the Internet with Recycler’s World “Recycler’s Exchange.” The service is free. Recycler’s World is an international trading site for recyclable and reuseable commodities, including used snow sports equipment. The web address is http://www.recycle.net/Consumer/snow/index.html.

Q: Where can I donate old games and toys?
A: Besides Goodwill and other local thrift shops, you can donate these items to RAFT (Resource Area for Teachers). RAFT is a non-profit service organization that collects a wide variety of manufacturing by-products, overruns, and other scrap material and redistributes them to schools and community groups. RAFT’s goal is to provide hands-on materials to classroom teachers and community groups. They offer workshops and ideas to its members which support creative teaching, especially in the areas of science, math, and art. RAFT can use reusable greeting cards, or other materials such as computers, crayons, fabric, or paper. Contact them at 408-451-1420 or www.raft.net.

Q: How do I reuse and/or recycle fabric?
A: Do you need ideas on how to reuse or recycle your old or unwanted clothes or want to know how much your clothes are worth when you donate them or want information on how to get a stain out of your couch. If it has to do with fabric, the Apparel and Textile Industry have put it on their website to create a great resource for the public: http://fabriclink.com.

FabricLink is an innovative educational resource and communication link developed for the textile/apparel/retail industry and its consumers. It is a forum for learning about the production, characteristics, advantages and care of fabric used in apparel, home fashion, gear and other textile products.

If a stain is the problem, recycling or landfilling clothing or furniture may not be the forgone conclusion. The Fabric Care website, http://www.fabriclink.com/Care/Home.cfm, has stain removal guides for washable fabrics, carpets, and upholstery as well as tips for laundry, storing fabrics, cleaning products, and treating flood and fire damage.

There are ideas galore for reuse and recycling clothes and fabrics on their Environmental Archive website: http://www.fabriclink.com/News/Sustainability.cfm. There are ideas on how to refurbish, reuse, and recycle old clothes and fabric, places to donate old clothing and what is a reasonable tax deduction, tips on how to have a successful garage sale and how to price clothing at a garage sale, tips on fundraising with clothes, and where to buy and sell vintage clothes.

This website is very helpful and contains many creative ideas to help avoid landfilling clothing and textiles.

Q: Which is better paper bags or plastic bags?
A: Paper bags are theoretically biodegradable, but hardly any degradation takes place in a dry, modern landfill. Paper bags are recyclable along with corrugated cardboard and are made with a renewable resource, but sometimes they can be make carrying the groceries difficult. Plastic bags can be recycled on campus and at the Stanford Recycling Drop Off Center as well as most larger grocery stores. They make it easier to carry groceries, but they are not made of a renewable resource. Re-use of whatever shopping bags you use is a good solution, but the best is to use a reusable canvas bag or no bag at all.