At least through August, the BI Senior Center is holding book and puzzle swaps. All ages are welcome.

Please wear a mask to participate. Donations brought on that day will be put out the following week. The more popular puzzles to donate are 500 pieces or fewer.

If you have other items to donate, the Waterfront Thrift at the Senior Center is accepting donations by appointment. Please call Tijen at 206-713-3937. Due to space issues, they may not be able to accept everything.

(They are open for shopping Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 10am-1pm).

On approval, they will accept the following:

They cannot accept:

The Bargain Boutique is not accepting donations at this time. They closed on July 29 and will reopen on August 10 in their new, smaller location next to Paws and Fins on Hildebrand Lane. When they begin taking donations, they will have to exclude large furniture.

Who is taking large furniture, as well as anything with a fair market value over $20? Rotary!

Go here to see how you can support this long-time community grantor through donations of items in good or better-than-good condition. You can put an item up for bid anytime between August 1-15. Shopping starts on August 24.

To donate, drop off in the large, blue plastic bin by the recycling at the base of the driveway. Her house is at 831 Eagle Cliff Road NE, but the driveway is actually just south of Eagle Cliff on Ferncliff. (Fyi, she takes any kind of plastic plant pots, too.)

This reuse art studio, located at 123 Bjune Dr., is always on the look-out for donations of natural materials like small wood scraps (1 inch to 5 inch squares, or longer sticks to be cut down), shells, interesting rocks and twigs, decorative papers, and old paint or drawing sets.

Did you miss browsing in the LOO at Rotary this year? If so, Scrappy Art Lab owner Rachel Knudson has a mini shop where, for a nominal fee, you can bag up an array of items to reuse in any manner you deem creatively inspiring!

A few years ago, Sara Suseyi became concerned about perfectly good boxes going straight to recycling, so she created a Facebook group, Bainbridge Island Box Exchange, where you can ask for boxes or offer them up. When deciding between reusing or recycling, choose the former!

And just a quick reminder about what to do with all the different kinds of mailers your goods may come in. Again, if you can't reuse them, then...

In 2011, a Sustainable Bainbridge Wiping out Waste (WOW) campaign raised $42,000 to install seven pairs of Bigbellies (trash compactor + recycling bin) downtown, six along Winslow Way, plus a set at Doc's. Unfortunately, over time there has been so much contamination in the recycling that Bainbridge Disposal no longer recycles it; it all gets dumped into the garbage truck.

As an example of the level of contamination, this past Friday at the Bigbelly outside of Blackbird Bakery, there were 104 cans and bottles in the recycling. In that same container were almost 100 nonrecyclable items, including 65 paper and plastic cups*.

Jane Martin, our trusty Zero Waste sign maker, created the signs in the above photo and attached them after our recycling audit. The following day we spot-checked the recycling and saw only two cups among about 15 cans and bottles. If these signs continue to prove effective in keeping the contamination low, the public works department will make them into permanent metal faceplates and Bainbridge Disposal will once again be able to recycle the recycling!

*Zero Waste used to collect #1 plastic cups at public events because Bainbridge Disposal allowed it, provided we made sure they were empty, clean, lidless and strawless. However, recycling criteria have changed and the only acceptable plastic now is clean and empty bottles, jugs and dairy tubs.

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