Unused trash offered as free reusable treasures

Hoosiers wishing to obtain "free" usable items within the Bloomington community need not tread through their neighbors' trash, dumpster dive for workable treasures or steal reusable wares from their neighbors' porches. \nBeyond the "general employment" and "miscellaneous for sale" sections typical of local newspaper classified pages, Bloomington residents and students can find free reusable items often requiring a mere pick-up from their neighbor. Home appliances, recreational equipment, tools, mattresses, piles of dirt and pounds of animal feces are often items not needed at the moment. Free items are often instead in need of renewed appreciation from renewed ownership.\nLarry Jacobs, a maintenance mechanic for Midland Cut Stone, said his limestone-cut mill offers about 3,000 to 4,000 tons of "free" dirt comprised of about 70 percent lime on any given day. He said interested neighbors could show-up with a shovel and a five gallon bucket, but he prefers to load "bigger trucks" -- farm buckets and pick-up trucks.\n"It can be used for any number of things like in filling in gullies or sinkholes," Jacobs said. "Farmers use it in their fields all the time to kill a lot of the weeds. It can also be spread throughout grass yards or used in older flower beds."\nBedford resident Tom Miller, who relocated from Bloomington a short while ago, said he used the "free" section to offload a reusable but unneeded 16 X 80 -- "maybe larger" -- mobile home \nunderpinning. \n"I received four or five calls the first day," he said. "I gave it away to the guy who called first." \nElizabeth, a Bloomington resident who wished to uphold the anonymous nature of a classified ad, said she received more than 30 calls for her free basketball goal before noon during the advertisement's first day in the paper. \n"I accomplished getting rid of it," Elizabeth said. "I called the city to post it on the bulletin board, but the waste department never came to get it."\nJohnny Spearman, a Monroe County Solid Waste Management District employee, said Bloomington residents and students can indeed donate "anything reusable free to a good home." He said interested givers-to-be should post a slip of paper advertisement on a message board in their parking lot, but they do not pick-up free items or store anything free on their \nproperty. \nHoosiers wishing to give their free reusable items to a community-based cause can donate their otherwise unneeded treasures to several service-oriented organizations throughout the city.\nLinda New, a part-time employee of the Backstreet Mission Thrift Store, said her organization will pick-up free and reusable furniture for resale to generate funds to support their men's shelter. The Backstreet Mission, 1928 Arlington Rd., accepts most housewares, kitchen appliances, coaches, dining tables and chairs, washers and dryers, doors and windows and dressers. New said they do not accept microwaves, waterbeds or exercise equipment. \n"On the whole, people are pretty good about giving us things that are workable and sellable," she said.\nRick Lock, manager of the Habitat for Humanity Restore, said his community-based cause collects building materials for resale to generate funds to build Habitat for Humanity homes. The Habitat Restore, 444 S. Patterson St., accepts kitchen cabinets, refrigerators, sinks, lighting fixtures, doors and tiles -- "just about anything that goes into a home," he said. Lock said his organization does not offer pick-up.\n"Donated (reusable) items are tax deductible. We sell them to the general public," he said. "The money goes to Habitat to buy new Habitat homes built on-site with new materials."\nHoosiers wishing to share plant and animal life outside the human home can also utilize the "free" ads of local newspapers. \nGene Loosemore, owner of Rocky River Farms, said his 40 horse farm requires clean-up six days of the week. He allows neighbors to load as much manure as they can haul into small dump trucks if needed.\n"In nine years I've never had to have any manure removed. I run an ad in the paper when the pile gets a little out of hand," he said. "It can be used for gardening, mulching -- spread out in the pasture." \nBloomington resident Cheryl Baker, owner of Baker's Junction Haunted Train in Smithsville, said she used the "free" ads to ensure the survival of about 200 two-foot silver trees. She said her phone "rang off the wall" the first morning her ad appeared in newsprint.\n"I bought (the trees) at a nursery and I put a bunch in the ground," Baker said. "I had plans for the rest that fell through -- they needed to be planted into the ground. I didn't want to see them dying on the ground so we gave them away"