Introduction

The Hall County Resource Recovery Division fields frequent calls from residents and businesses who wish to "find a home" for their usable materials. Many times, these materials may be of value to another individual, group, or project. After all, "Waste is a resource in the wrong place."

EnviroShare X-Change is a system of interrelated email lists that allows materials and needs to match themselves. As materials become available for reuse, they are offered directly to those in need, which helps make Hall County a better place to live while keeping beneficial materials out of the landfill. This project has become part of Hall County's overall waste reduction efforts.

The EnviroShare X-Change: Step By Step

Each email list in this system has been organized around the following sectors in Hall County:

1. Business and Industry
2. Non-profit Organizations
3. Schools

Each sector is guided by a director. This person has the following responsibilities:

1. Inform their sector about the project and encourage participation
2. Assemble email addresses of participants (in their sector)
3. Update the email list
4. Pay fees
5. Filter posts/moderate (When a post crosses from one email list to another, it will be the job of the sector director to decide whether this post is of interest or appropriate to his/her sector.)

Let's look at a hypothetical example of how this might work. For example, let's say a local business contacts Hall County Resource Recovery wanting help getting rid of some plastic squeeze bottles. It's determined that they can't be recycled, but perhaps they could have re-use potential. Thinking these might be of interest to schools for use in art or perhaps science classes, the bottles are posted as an "available" listing to the Schools Email List Director. He/she agrees these could be of interest to the schools and posts this to the Schools' Email List. Each school's "point person" receives the post and disseminates it per normal procedures in place at each school. Teachers respond positively to the information and the match is made.

Beyond Waste Reduction and Reuse

EnviroShare X-Change has implications beyond a solid waste management tool. Have a question? Need to get out a meeting notice? Need to spread the word quickly about an upcoming grant or scholarship opportunity? This tool may be just what is needed not only for materials exchange, but also for information sharing and gathering, as well.

If you have materials to offer, or wish to make a request, please email us with your needs.