Return to Virginia Business - January 2002

Businesses in Rockingham County are parlaying superfluous office supplies into a money-saving venture for area schools, taking recycling to a new level.

Thanks to the county's new teacher-supply depot, teachers are eagerly snapping up supplies - from blank cassette tapes to kitchen supplies to envelopes - that businesses otherwise would have thrown away. The depot, a joint venture between the Rockingham Educational Foundation and the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce, opened in November at John C. Myers Elementary School. It's a win-win situation for all parties, says Pat Doss, executive vice president of the chamber. Businesses are glad to have some place other than a landfill to get rid of extra supplies, while resourceful teachers can turn just about anything into useful learning materials.

Although still in its early stages, the project has been successful so far, says Janet Wendelken, president of the educational foundation. "Teachers can make things out of anything," she says, adding that art departments aren't the only ones benefiting from the donations. For instance, biology teachers were thankful when Coors Brewing Co. discovered it had 1,000 test tubes that were the wrong size and donated them to the depot. R.R. Donnelley & Sons, a local printing company, donated six pallets of paper that had been cut the wrong size. Resourceful students and teachers could find myriad uses for the huge rolls of paper.

Donations are not limited to just the obscure. Businesses left with outdated stationery thanks to a recent merger or name change can donate those leftover supplies as well. The depot will accept just about anything, Wendelken says, as long as it's not junk: "Portfolios, cardboard, blank cassette tapes, buttons, cotton balls, overhead transparencies, newsprint, petri dishes, carpet squares …" the list goes on and on.

- Leila Marija Ugincius