As a more recent transplant to the Methow Valley, I’m always learning new things about the area. For a relatively small community, there is always a lot happening, with abundant opportunities to participate in classes and projects. I like to scan local bulletin boards for events, and though I wasn’t able to make it to the classes so far, Methow Recycles’ Sustainable Living Skills Series caught my attention. I met with the organization’s executive director, Aspen Kvicala, to learn more about it.
Aspen described Methow Recycles as “a waste prevention center that also recycles.” Founded in 2001, the organization has always believed that recycling is only part of the answer. Preventing waste from the start is the higher goal. “Since our inception, we knew that we had to also focus on some waste prevention, like reuse, reduce, and composting, instead of just offering recycling as a solution,” said Aspen. “It took some time to get there.”
This year, a new grant allowed Methow Recycles to present a workshop series geared towards adults focusing on empowering people with the practical skills to fix and reuse things instead of throwing them away.
So far, the series has covered tool and knife sharpening and repair, and food preservation techniques like dehydration. The next class in the series is a Reupholstery and Hand Sewing workshop, taught by Sarah Jo Leitner, executive director of Methow Arts and a former Methow Recycles director, who developed a passion for reupholstery while running her own restaurant in Portland, where she gave new life to furniture to suit the space.
For the two-hour, beginner-friendly workshop, participants can bring their own chair or bar stool and learn about fabric selection, tool use, and basic reupholstery techniques, leaving with a refreshed piece of furniture. Aspen told me that furniture waste is a growing concern under Washington’s Climate Commitment Act, alongside construction debris and composting.
Like the other classes in the series, the reupholstery workshop is free, with registration encouraged ahead of time. The class is open to all ages, as long as children are accompanied by an adult.
Besides the skills workshop series, Methow Recycles has a lot of other cool things going on: the high school program Repair Corps, which paid six students a stipend to learn small engine repair this summer, as well as expansions to the reuse center, ongoing repair cafes, the tool library, and efforts to improve the regional glass recycling situation. “Really, the focus of our organization is giving people the tools and services they need to not create waste.” said Aspen.
The reupholstery workshop is on Tuesday, Sept. 22, from 5-7 p.m. at TwispWorks. For more information and to register, visit www.methowrecycles.org.
