Recycling is an important part of saving our natural resources. Right now, as I type this, I’m sitting on a plane flying from Los Angeles to New York. I’m going home from a vacation during which I drove through Washington and Oregon. Seeing the baron hills where great trees once stood deepened my resolve to save as much from each set as possible. While the lumber companies of those states are replanting several acres of land, the new trees won’t bring back the various wild life that used to live there.
How to recycle for safe and efficient use of materials?
- Forget about the sledge hammer attack method!
- Use your tools to take the set apart. Sorry, I know that breaking stuff is a perk.
- Practice common sense when building the set.
- Remove all metal from all wood. (Nails, Screws, Bolts, Staples.)
- Create an efficient storage system. I know that most schools have a problem with storage. Click on Storage for some ideas.
- When making soft covered flats, don’t use glue on the toggle. Then cut the cloth from the center and save it to make another smaller flat.
- If the ends of lumber is just too damaged from nails or screws, simply cut the end off and keep the good stuff from the middle.
- Save all bolts, nuts and washers.
- Toss all bent nails and used screws.
- Screws can get burrs when driven and these can cause injury when the screws are re-used.
