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After decades of hard use, MIT is undertaking a complete renovation of its Sloan Building, hub of the Sloan School of Management, on Memorial Drive in Cambridge.  After removing all furnishings suitable for reuse on campus, MIT was left with nearly 850 pieces of surplus, including office and school furnishings, desks, seating, file cabinets, shelving, …

MIT Saves Five Trailers of Surplus from Disposal – On Five Days\’ Notice Read More »

Terri Ramirez at San Jose State University had a familiar issue:  lots of surplus, no storage space.  Every time a professor or administrator bought a new desk or chair or upgraded old equipment, there was nothing to do with the old except throw it out.  There was no place to put it, and no way …

Kudos to San Jose State University: A Great Solution for Small Quantity Surplus Read More »

In 2013 through August, IRN provided more than five million pounds of surplus furniture and equipment to charities in the United State and overseas.  Although we’ve cleared five million pounds before, this is by far the earliest in the year that we’ve reached this milestone in the dozen years that IRN has managed the Surplus …

More Than 5 Million Pounds of Surplus Furniture and Equipment to Charity in 2013 Read More »

In just four years since 2010, the University of Central Missouri (UCM) has provided more than a million pounds of surplus furniture and equipment to charity. UCM is home to 9,500 undergraduate and over 2,000 graduate students in Warrensburg, sixty miles from Kansas City. Like most schools, UCM replaces dormitory, lounge, study, and reception furniture …

The University of Central Missouri Celebrates More Than One Million Pounds of Surplus Provided to Charity Read More »

There’s a problem trying to be an environmentalist. The problem is Mom. I try pretty hard to be pretty good dealing with the environment. I only heat two rooms in my house and I keep them at 50 most of the time. I don’t heat my bedroom at all, I sleep under a big pile …

Mom vs Mother Nature Read More »

I had a meeting this afternoon in a place called Ashburn Virginia.  Of course you have never heard of Ashburn, Virginia, because Ashburn, Virginia doesn’t exist.  It is not a town, it is not a township, it is not a city or a community.  It is a “Census Designated Place.”  It is 30 miles northwest …

What have we done to this beautiful country of ours? Read More »

Jeanne Sevigny is Assistant Director of BU Housing. She says: “This started out as a good idea for recycling our unwanted furniture, but as we became more connected with IRN and their charitable network the social benefits of the program really grabbed our hearts. For those of us in Housing and Sustainability, we could not be more pleased. We are doing the right thing environmentally and socially, and the costs related to this program are far less than disposal – a real win-win situation all around.”

I cut school in 8th grade to go to Earth Day.  I asked the School Authorities if I could be excused to go to Earth Day, but they said No.  So I cut school and went.  It was the first time I ever cut school. This was in Philly and Philly had one of the …

We Have Met The Enemy, and It Is Us Read More »

\”Why again do we spend so much on defense? Or, more precisely, why do we mis-spend so much on defense. \”

Fire up the Wayback Machine. If you don’t remember the Wayback Machine, then you can probably stop reading this anyway. The Wayback Machine belonged to Mr. Peabody. Actually I’m pretty sure he invented it. Mr. Peabody was a white dog who wore black eyeglasses. And a clip-on bow tie. It had to be a clip-on …

Here’s to you, Billy Buck Read More »

I had the great good fortune this spring to drive up and down long stretches of the Blue Ridge Parkway through North Carolina and Virginia. If you have never done that, you should; it is for sure one of the two or three most beautiful roads in the United States. You should drive it in …

Why We Recycle Mattresses, Sort Of Read More »

July fiber markets in New England and across most of the country are at five year highs.  Mixed Paper is at an all-time record; baled Mixed Paper in truckload volumes is at $110-$120 per ton!  Another grade close to it\’s all time high is Sorted Office Paper – now selling for $270-$280 per ton.  It was just …

FIBER MARKETS AT OR NEAR ALL TIME HIGHS Read More »

One place you don’t want your used electronics to wind up is in the media.  We get asked all the time why we charge money to recycle computers and monitors and TVs, cell phones, Blackberries and other used electronics.  The reason we get asked this question is that there are a lot of “recyclers” out …

E-Waste “Recycling” in the News Read More »

The thing I like best is when there\’s a hurricane and a hurricane expert comes on TV and says \”It\’s releasing as much power as fifty Hiroshima atom bombs going off every minute.\”  Or else this:  \”It\’s producing 200 times, as much energy as all of the electric generating plants in the world.\” Nothing points …

Solar Energy Read More »

This is a story for everyone who says that recycling and reuse cost too much and aren’t worth the effort, and for everyone who has to deal with those folks. Newton is a suburban city, population about 85,000, less than ten miles from downtown Boston.  When the City opened a new high school in August …

Recycling & Reuse: Worth the Effort? Worth the Effort. Read More »

Three decades of junk, strewn and thrown and jumbled.

Boston.com recently published a couple of anti-recycling columns by Jeff Jacoby. I can’t bring myself to write down the link.  If you want you can find them easily enough. They’re standard diatribe. Recycling is a pain in the neck. Recycling costs more than throwing stuff away.  Backed by standard sources for persons with Mr. Jacoby’s point of view: The Heartland …

The Problem With the Problem With Recycling Read More »

One thing about these locusts, though. You have to invite them in your door. If you don’t invite them in, they can’t come in. You can keep them out.

Contact: Kelly Waldram Cramer WARRENSBURG, MO (June 16, 2010) – University of Central Missouri Housing recently donated surplus furniture from Nattinger and Bradshaw residence halls to relief efforts in Spanish Town, Jamaica and San Pedro Sula, Honduras. The 1,932 pieces and included bed frames, ladders, desks, and chairs slated for Honduran and Jamaican orphanages or …

Relief Efforts Benefit from Donation of Surplus Furniture Read More »

Yes, the oil spill in the Gulf is a really bad thing, but I wish they taught statistics in high school. Because statistics tell you that is was just a matter of time until we had a catastrophic spill in the Gulf.  There are thousands and thousands of oil and gas wells in the Gulf, …

We Have Found the Enemy, and It Is Us or Why Don’t They Teach Statistics in High School Read More »

A space alien looking in on Silicon Valley would say to himself (or herself, or itself, whatever a space alien is), “What are these strange metal creatures that live on this planet?”

The humanitarian crisis caused by the Haiti earthquake has fallen out of the evening news. But that doesn’t mean the crisis is in any way diminished.

Company C in Concord, NH makes and sells high-quality bedding, furniture, and fabrics. Its products are made in more than 20 countries and sold to customers in twice that many. Company C’s warehouse is a buzz-saw. Trailers and containers from U.S. and international manufacturing plants are unloaded daily. Merchandise is unpacked, racked, unracked, and repacked. …

A Little Thought and Effort Yield 88% Waste Reduction and 59% Savings Read More »

Electronics Amnesties are a different take on Weird Waste. Used electronics are a liability. They contain information you don’t want to escape. They contain hazardous substances. Many of them, particularly CRT and flat-screen monitors, TVs, laptops, and anything with a rechargeable battery, are regulated wastes. And like dust mites or cockroaches, they’re everywhere – you …

Weird Waste Collections and Electronics Amnesty: Simple & Successful Read More »

There is nothing we throw away that is not a resource. Paper – To make paper we kill trees, hurt the land, and damage ecosystems. Almost 100% of paper can be recycled. The small fraction that can’t be recycled can be composted or burned to create energy – renewable, carbon-neutral energy. Plastic – Plastic is …

Think Zero Waste Read More »

For over 100 years into the 1970s the H.W. Carter overall factory was a cornerstone of the community in Lebanon, NH. Sitting just off the town green, it was also a centerpiece of the landscape. But as in thousands of other communities, times changed, the Carter factory closed, and the structure devolved into an eyesore. …

Eyesore to Showpiece: Another Reason We Do What We Do Read More »

Smith College’s Ford Hall is a 140,000 square foot brick and steel structure designed house Smith’s engineering, chemistry, and computer science programs. Ford Hall uses sustainable design, construction, and operating elements not only for their environmental and economic benefits, but also as teaching tools. In this light Smith sought to maximize and document the financial …

97% Waste Reduction at Smith College Ford Hall through Deconstruction, Reuse, and Recycling Read More »

Here\’s an article from the Boston Globe on March 2, another article about shady electronics recycling. You can read the whole article at http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/03/02/old_televisions_spark_environmental_dispute/ Nine truck-size shipping containers filled with old televisions from a Brockton recycling company are at the center of an international dispute drawing attention to a major problem in the regulation of …

Electronics Recycling: A Divide With No Way Across Read More »

January 2005 was a bleak month for Boston University’s Brown Arena basketball floor. After 30 years hosting men’s and women’s hoops, after feeling the step of coaches like BU’s own Rick Pitino, Mike Krzyzewski, and Jim Calhoun, after playing under Reggie Lewis, Christian Laettner, and Grant Hill, after underpinning a tennis court for Billie Jean …

BU’s Brown Arena Basketball Floor Gets a New Life in Jamaica Read More »

I just returned from a few days of site visits on college and corporate campuses. I found a very common situation: open top rolloff containers that were being used for the mixed debris from onsite construction and cleanup projects. When I complimented their mixed debris recycling, I got the same response almost every time. “The …

Q: When Is Trash Not Trash? A: When It’s Recyclable Mixed Debris. Read More »

IRN runs on a really dumb model: When it comes to getting stuff out of the waste stream, we try to be everything to everybody. A lot of the time we kick ourselves for trying to do so much. But every now and then a project comes along to remind us that all the things …

Why We Do What We Do: Columbia Reality House Read More »

The raw materials that come from recycling are the most important raw materials on earth.