Re-Use center to officially open

Wanda English-Burnett, Editor

Recycling has a new meaning in Ripley County. Items are being recycled right back into local homes through the innovative inception of the Ripley County Re-Use Center, located at the Ripley County Highway Garage Recycling Center on US 421 near Osgood.

The program has two advantages for people. They can get rid of gently used items they no longer need and can also pick up things they do need. Here’s how it works. Take almost any item you need to run a household to the center during normal business hours Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; Friday, 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. and Saturday from 8:00 a.m. until noon. These can include any working appliances, computer, electronics, lawn mowers, clean clothing, exercise equipment, books, housewares, good paint (even partially used cans), bicycles, toys, and many other useful and reusable items.

What is not accepted is shoes, dirty or ripped clothing, underwear, mattresses or bedding, old paints that have been frozen, dried, thinned or contaminated, books with mold or mildew, and items that are potentially hazardous because of flaws or faults.

“Basically, if you can’t sell it on your yard sale for a quarter, I probably can’t get rid of it either,” noted Bill Warren, who is the manager for the recycling/re-use center. He said they are in need of items that still have “life in them.”

Then the items brought in will be recycled back to the residents of the county. You can shop at the spacious room at the re-use center on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on Saturday from 8 a.m. until noon. July 17 will be the first day for shopping. There is one catch to the shopping...it’s free. If your lamp breaks and you need one, check out the reuse center to see if they have any in stock. If you’re in need of something in particular, you can fill out a “exchange board card” and say what it is you’re looking for. When that item comes in, you’ll be notified.

“It’s a great system that people can take advantage of,” noted Warren, who hopes residents will use the facility for its intended purpose - to re-use items. He said the project has taken about a year to get in place. He looks at it as a wonderful opportunity for people - both from the giving and receiving aspect. There is no income guidelines for shopping at the facility, no paperwork that has to be filled out. There will be rules to follow and those will be outlined at the facility.

The reuse center is new in Ripley County and has been modeled in other places with great success, according to Warren, who had visited a facility in Bloomington. “We’re learning from them some things that work and others that don’t,” he told the Osgood Journal.

The public is invited to a ribbon cutting ceremony on Saturday, July 14, from 8:00 a.m. until noon at the new center. All Ripley County residents who attend this event will be entered into a raffle and could win a park bench made from recycled milk jugs, bird feeders made from recycled products, and SISWD hats and other giveaways.

The Ripley County Reuse Center is located with the recycling center, already in operation. The Ripley County Commissioners, along with Southeastern Indiana Solid Waste District (SISWD), invite the public to check out the new facility.

For more information, you can contact Warren at 812-689-5084. If no one answers, leave a message and he’ll get back with you.