WALDORF, Md. — Under the shade of a tree, Helen Miller wore her tool apron yesterday and sorted through items in boxes marked “free” before walking around to organize sale items and answer questions in the thick summer air.
As co-chairwoman of the nonprofit conservation program known as the Re-Use Barn Project, Mrs. Miller often spends Saturdays this way, helping shoppers buy items that others no longer want.
The program, which began in August 1997, is a cooperative effort between the Southern Maryland Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America and the Charles County commissioners. Organizers say they are trying to extend the life of the public landfill and save tax dollars, while offering people reusable goods at affordable prices.
“Try to save the landfill,” said Ellen Heilmeier, the other co-chairwoman. “Nobody wants a landfill near them. My heart’s always been into recycling. … Find another use.”
Volunteers at the Re-Use Barn accept items destined for the landfill, then sell them to customers on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Buyers pay what they can afford in the form of donations, and the money is reinvested into such community organizations and programs as schools, scholarships and environmental education.
Yesterday, the huge yard was covered with almost everything imaginable — from a 1987 Lincoln limousine, to bicycles, to furniture, to a device that smears butter on a cob of corn.
Items inside the old tobacco barn included a motorcycle, a stove and wooden chairs.
In the early years of the program, volunteers would drive to the landfill to try to intercept items before they were discarded. Now people come to them, they say.
To be sure, a steady stream of people — including those with truckloads of items — arrived yesterday.
“It’s a lot of work [but] you’re addicted to it,” Mrs. Miller said.
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