collectionpoints

Collection points

It’s easy to give things away if they are not broken.

It’s easy to throw things away if they are.

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The hardest thing (from my perspective) in RETAINING wealth in communities is to create collection points and distribution points for things that people can use that are in pieces.

I stored some (what I considered) beautiful pieces of wood that I had no use for. I had picked them out of curbside garbage as I took walks (pieces from broken furniture). Some individuals in this community recently found the time and resources to open a Habitat for Humanity resale shop. I finally found an outlet for the wood. I hope it finds a good home and worthy projects.

I have lots of ‘pieces’ that most people would throw away. Some are designated for future projects. Most need appropriate homes. I can tell you many possibilities for their use ... but they need the right person doing the right project. In the right hands the pieces have extraordinary individual and community wealth creating value.

In a landfill, I can imagine the value just ‘rotting’ away. (Note: See P.S. below related to Depression era collectors, bicycle parts and electronic components).

Finally here:

Projects created with 'thrown away’ & second hand items:

( 1 ) ( Q's ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) ( 4 ) ( 5 ) ( 6 ) ( 7 )

Opportunities for creating more collection points (OPEN)

Opportunities for creating more distribution points (OPEN)

The value of wish lists (OPEN)

P.S. A generation of individuals who were born in the midst of the Depression (and were savers of things) is now passing away. Their cupboards and closets and basements and garages are filled with things their kids would throw in the trash. One man I know has a garage full of bicycle parts. Another who just passed away has tools and connectors and parts for almost every imaginable thing. His wife does not know what to do with it all, her kids do not have the time to 'mess with it all' and there is no community collection point for these things (like there is for construction materials at Habitat for Humanity resale shops).

Bicycle parts are a no-brainer: ALL Boys and Girls Clubs across the nation (or junior high schools and high schools) should have bicycle shops with paint booths--focused on getting wheels into the hands of kids AND into the hands of senior citizens. A wagon or cart (or a sled in the winter time) hauls trash. Three wheelers make a trip around the block or to the store viable for some senior citizens.

Likewise, technology has moved to 'green boards' which are the 'electronic' everythings of systems: resistors, transistors, etc. But if you want the kids who have the ability to really learn electronics, we need to find some way to harvest all the (approx.) pre-1995 easy to physically see how everything is working capacitors, resistors, transistors, etc. and get them to the places where the kids who have the aptitude can take advantage of them.

I am not an electronics genius (FAR from it — I take things apart — but have never studied electronics in depth — although I know a fair amount about energy related topics). But I know that I would gain great value in having voltage and amperage maps of electronic equipment in various states of use. (Did anyone ever do this?) I also want thermal maps (I expect the later are readily available within corporations proprietarily because it's important that electronic equipment is properly insulated and cooled but the former are not).

The kid who's destined to become an electronic genius would look at maps like these and for them, they'd literally be like a roadmap to somewhere.

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