Last Saturday, Methow Recycles hosted a curbside Repair Café at the Cove parking lot. I just love this event, but I didn’t attend this time. In earnest, I tried to find something broken to bring but alas, I failed, and I got swept away in apple pie making and my broken items will now be useless until next time. Still, what a great resource these fixers are bringing to the community. In the true spirit of re-use, Methow Recycles Repair Cafes allow people to give things a second chance. And doesn’t everyone deserve a second chance?
Speaking of second chances, many of you tried to log on to the Friends of the Pool live stream community meeting last Thursday on YouTube but were met with no audio. This was an unfortunate technical glitch that couldn’t be remedied live. Fortunately, the recording of the presentation with full audio is now available on the homepage www.foptwisp.org. There too, you can find a button to fill out a questionnaire with the same questions that were posed to the live audience. Friends of the Pool, including yours truly, appreciates your effort to join us online and sincerely hope you’ll continue to participate in the path to building the future of swimming in the Methow Valley.
Back to recycling. This is the season of recycling and disposal. No other time is the process more visible in nature. It’s the time when we must dispose and manage our yard debris and burn piles light up the night in a tradition that feels primal and almost holy. The merits of burning are many, but there is a downside to this time-honored tradition — more smoke and the increasing danger of wildfire. When piles are cool and moist, they don’t burn efficiently, releasing more toxins and irritants in the air, and leaving them untended in a narrowing season demands caution.
If you chose to burn, make sure it’s dry and hot, tend your fire, have water or dirt nearby, and make sure all burn bans are lifted. Burning yard waste after sunset in the Twisp town limits is prohibited. Be careful and don’t burn alone. Notify friends and neighbors when you burn because it can be dangerous if flames quickly become unmanageable. If you opt not to burn, the Twisp transfer station is open for yard waste collection Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
More about recycling. Ever wonder what to do with certain items? Methow Recycles has a great webpage that walks you through many common disposal questions and where to take those items. I stumbled upon it recently after I opened the trash can and saw two pairs of running shoes my beloved had discarded. It made me wonder … what to do with old running shoes that have clearly been overrun? While they could be thrifted or sent to a developing world market, the tread was well worn and it didn’t feel charitable to donate such worn out shoes. With, a little Googling, I found an answer.
Here locally, donated shoes with some life left can be brought to the Senior Center, Thrifty Fox, RoomOne, or the big blue box outside Hanks. But when the shoes are not worth donating, many manufacturers are now taking shoes back as part of bring back recycling program. Asics, for instance, will allow you to print a shipping label to send old sneakers back to their Give Back Box program. Nike stores across the country will also take back any brand of sneaker as part of their Move to Zero program. Recycled sneakers are meticulously deconstructed, and the rubber is often repurposed into other uses like squishy playground surfacing. Now, that’s something underfoot to feel good about.
