Do you use Community Forklift as a lending library for your home? We really hope you will!
Home improvement spending has risen steadily over the past decade. Americans love to redesign their homes and change out materials like cabinets, furniture, and lighting fixtures for the newest style.
Oftentimes, shopping at a traditional furniture or home goods store follows a linear type of economy: one buys an item, uses it in the home, and then throws it out when it becomes tiresome or out of style. This type of consuming has consequences for the planet both in terms of natural resources needed to create new products and also the amount of waste that ends up in our landfills.
Community Forklift is a part of a different type of economy: a circular one. At the reuse warehouse, you can buy items for your home at below market prices, enjoy them in your space, donate them back to the warehouse when you’re ready for a change, and then pick up something else to replace them!
In this way, the reuse warehouse functions a lot like a communal library of stuff. Just as you would check out a book from a library to read and return for the next person, you can purchase an item from Community Forklift and then later donate it back for another person to enjoy.
This type of economy lessens the amount of natural resources consumed and the amount of waste in landfills by keeping usable materials in circulation longer. Also, by shopping at Community Forklift you are supporting good green jobs in the community and helping provide free materials to nonprofits and households with limited incomes. Since 2005, we have provided over $500,000 in free materials to neighbors in need and local nonprofits through our HELP and CBB programs.
So the next time you embark on a home remodeling project or redecoration, think of Community Forklift as your local lending library for your home! Donate your existing materials and purchase salvaged ones from our reuse warehouse and help us lift up our community through reuse!
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Every time you donate or shop at Community Forklift, you’re helping us lift up local communities through reuse. We turn the construction waste stream into a resource stream for communities in the DC region – by keeping perfectly good items out of the landfill, preserving historical materials, providing low-cost building supplies, and creating local green jobs.
