One student’s trash is another’s furniture

Pitt junior Mary Barbish lives in Bouquet Gardens. The on-campus apartment provides a… Pitt junior Mary Barbish lives in Bouquet Gardens. The on-campus apartment provides a comfortable living with not only two bathrooms and a kitchen complete with dishwasher and stove, but also a table and chairs, two couches, a coffee table and beds and desks for her and her three roommates. When Barbish moves into her partially furnished Oakland Avenue apartment next year, however, she will have to get her own furniture. The apartment will have a bed, a couch and a kitchen table already waiting for her. ‘But that’s not enough,’ she said. ‘I still need a desk, a dresser, a nightstand and bookshelves.’ Four blocks away, a wooden nightstand sits outside an Atwood Street home next to two full bags of garbage and a used mattress. There is nothing wrong with the nightstand other than a few scratches on its surface, and yet it sits on the curb, waiting to be taken to a landfill. That’s where the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation comes in. From April 24 until the middle of August, the OPDC will collect furniture in relatively good condition to resell to students at relatively low prices just before fall classes start at Pitt. The OPDC is a community group that tries to improve the living conditions of Oakland residents by providing waste management services, sponsoring neighborhood clean-ups and planting trees and flowers throughout the area. The idea for reusing old furniture came to the OPDC several years ago as a spin-off of its Dumpster Project. The group places several Dumpsters in South Oakland for students who are moving out to discard any trash or broken furniture. Kelly Wawrzeniak, then a student intern for OPDC, and her coworkers noticed that much of the used furniture in the Dumpsters was still in good condition. ‘We thought, ‘Why don’t we collect them and sell then at a low price?” said Wawrzeniak. Thus began OPDC’s Furniture Recycling Program. Since April 2006, the organization has collected donated furniture in relatively good condition. OPDC, located at 235 Atwood St., next to Sorrento’s Pizza, keeps the furniture in a storage unit the week before fall classes begin. Then, it sells all of the items in the back lot behind Sorrento’s to students for cheap. According to Wawrzeniak, who is now community organizer for OPDC and runs the Furniture Recycling Program, the first sale in 2006 had about 130 pieces, not all of them in fair or good condition. Last year, they had about 350 pieces of furniture in decent condition. Wawrzeniak said that students will buy just about anything. ‘I’m like, ‘I don’t know if I would buy this couch,’ and yet a student will come along and purchase it.’ The proceeds from the sale go toward funding next year’s Furniture Recycling Program, as well as OPDC’s ‘Keep it Clean, Oakland!’ projects, which recruit volunteer s to clean an Oakland street once per month. Although Wawrzeniak says that the OPDC is less picky than discount furniture stores, they are still selective about which items they will sell. The commission doesn’t accept mattresses for health reasons, and it no longer sells bed frames because there is little demand for them. The OPDC plans to put doorknob advertisements on Oakland’ homes reminding residents of the’ ban on couches on porches and asking them to donate couches and any other extra furniture for the sale.’ Pitt senior Chelsea Eddington, who lives in an apartment in Bellevue, has a loveseat and a couch that just couldn’t fit. The pieces have sat in her garage for the past year. ‘I just want to get rid of them, or just toss them out,’ she said. Students like Eddington can either take their unwanted furniture to the OPDC’s office or call the organization to pick up the donated furniture if they live in or near Oakland. While the organization accepts furniture that has some wear, it will not take broken furniture. Wawrzeniak also advises that donors think twice before donating that newly banned couch from their porch. ‘If it’s been sitting out in the rain, we won’t take it,’ she said. ‘With bugs, rodents, mildew, there are just too many problems.’ The Furniture Recycling Program has created a buzz around the city. The OPDC has advertised for donations and for the sale itself in local newspapers and environmentalist newsletters. ‘I saw the signs for the sale last fall,’ said Eddington. ‘I really wanted to check it out, but I was too busy when it was going on. Maybe next year, though.’ Sarah O’Donnell, a Pitt junior moving into her first off-campus apartment in the fall, plans to check out the furniture sale in August. ‘All I have lined up for the next year is two ottomans,’ she said with a laugh. ‘I’m definitely looking for more furniture.’ ‘