 And welcome to In The Studio. I'm your host today, Martha Teter. And I want to tell you today about the new big blue barn landfill thrift store that's going to be opening up. So my guest today is Pamela Hedrick. And she is the waste reduction recycling coordinator for Yolo County. That's correct. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Glad to have you. Yeah, so this is really an exciting venture. So a landfill thrift store at the landfill. Yeah. So tell me about how it worked. Well, we work at the thrift store, but we also work at the landfill. So we see a lot of good stuff coming into the landfill, stuff that is totally usable. And we ask people if they would like to donate it. And if they do, awesome. We show them where they can take it. And then we put it in our thrift store. So someone else's trash can be somebody else's treasure. Wow. So actually, they don't need to make a special trip out. But if they're going to the landfill and they have stuff, you'll also look over it. That is true. Right. And I guess there's a special opportunity to bring stuff in good condition. Maybe some larger things. Like there's this large basket over here. Maybe some things our other thrift stores don't take. A lot of furniture. A lot of other thrift stores don't have the space for furniture. So large amours, tables, chairs. We have a lot of those things. Great. I even see some of those stuff put out on the curb too. So they could just take it down. And someone else could make good use of it. Pet products is another one. Like dog crates and kennels and gates. So we do have a lot of those items. Interesting. Great. So we have some stuff in the studio that you've gotten in already. I guess the store is taking donations, although I guess it's not quite open. But see, let's take a look at some of the things you've got. So someone dropped this off in eWaste because we take eWaste at the landfill. So this is a tire mobility kit. It's brand new. Hasn't even been opened or used. And apparently they didn't need it anymore. So we can certainly use this in our thrift store. Great. We've got some toys here. Do you have toys? Cute little toys. The Woodland Toy Library went out of business. So they donated items for us to sell. Brand new other items. This is a dish trainer. But it's still in the original box. That's for baby bottles, it looks like. Yeah. And then fixtures for your bathroom. We also get a lot of lights. Christmas lights. Oh, I see. Yeah, Christmas globes. Yeah. And also some other items that are tools. We do get a lot of tools. This is a caulking gun, brand new. It will be sold at our thrift store. Great. That's fantastic. So when is your thrift store open? Well, we're open on a every other month event basis. Because it takes us time to gather all these items. And we clean them up a bit. And then stage them in our thrift store. So our next event is April 21st, 22nd, and 23rd. It's always over a three day period. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The hours are nine to three. And it is in the big blue barn, which is at the landfill. OK. That's how it got its name. That's how it got its name. OK. Yeah, we can see a picture up there of the big blue barn. Big blue barn. Yeah. And so we'll be open for those three days. And on Sunday is always our half price day. So everything in the store, whatever the prices are, everything is half off. So we kind of want the inventory to move because we're going to have two months to gather new stuff. And then kind of clean out the store and start fresh. OK, so you'll have the store open every couple of months. And meanwhile, be accumulating stuff. Accumulating new stuff. Yeah, and I was surprised the landfill is really not that far from us here right now in East Davis. It's only 10 minutes away. Yeah. A lot of people think it's really far. And it's really not. Occasionally, and my mind is really far, there's a nice map. We have a two about it. Yeah. So what's OK and what's not OK to bring to the store? Yeah. We take furniture, but we don't take upholstered furniture. So we don't want couches and chairs that have upholstered because they're stored in a big blue barn, basically a big building. And we have mice out there. It's out in the country. And so things get ruined. And we'd rather just take wood furniture, so nothing upholstered, no clothing, no things like that that are unacceptable. So no clothes, no upholstered furniture, no children's car seats, and no things that don't have all the pieces. Yes. Yeah. That's a big one, actually. We get a lot of the little kids' toys that have chargers. And we don't have the chargers. So that's important. And so the things you can take, you can take bikes, you can take kids' toys. Paddy of furniture, lumber, tile, or tile that you don't need anymore so that people can. OK, so building materials. Building materials. And a big place structure that, yeah. Wooden furniture, we all have. Cabinetry, countertops, sinks, faucets. A lot of people are just throwing that stuff away. So we certainly. And that could be lumber too? Yeah, lumber also. Lumber could be used too. Right. So you have a really big selection of things you can take. That is very true. We have a large space, but we don't have a covered space. So we're working on that. But yeah. OK, great. Good. So we also have a few slides of things that you now are collecting in your thrift store. Maybe we can see some of these. So we've got bottles. Yeah, housewares. A lot of knickknacks. Some things are pretty. Garden statues is another one, or plant shelves. OK. So that's some. What are some of the other things? I think we just got books. Oh yeah, we do have a large library of books. Children's books and adult books. You never know what you're going to find. So it's fun looking through those. A lot of baskets. A lot of, like this one is here, but we have a lot of other baskets. Picture frames, bulletin boards. A lot of office equipment. So a lot of offices have closed. And they've donated file folders and the desk files that you might set on your desk. A lot of desk and things like that. And then a children's toys. Yeah, larger children's toys could be. Baby things like swings and strollers. A lot of jogger strollers are out there. And we sell them at a really reduced cost. So they're still in really good shape. So you can come out and use them. Nice. Well, it's great to see that there is some way that some of these larger things can be put to reuse. Yeah, yeah. So will this be the first opening of the Thrift Store? No, we actually opened last June as our first day, but our first opening. And we've had four events so far. So this will be our fifth event. And then we really want to get on a regular basis of opening every other month for a full weekend. And it just takes a lot of time to pull stuff out. We're out there pulling stuff out of metals. A lot of bicycles that are thrown away because people think they're no good. They just need a little bit of tender loving care. They can certainly be used again. Yeah, interesting. So you kind of did you happen on this accidentally that you kept seeing all this stuff getting thrown away? Yes. So you created this opportunity? Well, there's a few other stores in California. We modeled ours after it's called The Last Chance Mercantile. And it's down in Monterey County. Oh, I see. And we see so much good stuff being thrown away that we're like, we need to do this. Wow. My supervisor and I, Marissa Jeweler, and myself both work for the county at the landfill. And we're like, we need to do something with all this good material and create a place where people can use it again so it's not all being thrown away and wasted. We have diverted about 15 tons away from going into the landfill already in just four events. Wow, that's great. That's great. So it's really important that people know about this and kind of get it on their calendars to get out there. The 21st, that would be a Friday, Saturday. And then on Sunday, you have the clearance sales. Yeah, that's great. So yeah, we really want people to donate too. Because instead of us pulling out stuff out of the trash, we do need good usable donations for sure. So please, come out and the scale house will direct you. So this has sort of been on a pilot for a while. And now we're ready to go public and attract some donations and also attract people to take advantage of it. Of the shopping. Yeah, lawn mowers too. Actually, we've pulled lawn mowers out. So yeah, I keep thinking of things. Wow, that's amazing. Quite a lot of good, useful equipment. And for building, particularly, I know there's always an issue about good building supplies that you want to have them not be thrown away, but have another use to them. And this is sort of related to reuse. But at the landfill, we have a construction and demolition area where there's a lot of wood that is thrown away. And we're actually chipping that wood and selling it for mulch. For mulch. So that's another thing you can do when you're picking up some of these goods. You could get chips or any time you go to the landfill. Any time. The landfill is $25 a cubic yard. So and there's plain natural color, which is the brown. Or else they have experimented with coloring. So we have red and I think a black out there. And you have to bring your own container then. You do. Yeah, a pickup truck for a cubic yard. I've also seen some wood too, you asked about firewood. Yes, we're selling firewood now. But the thrift store, we do sell two by fours and other pieces. That's inside the thrift store, great. So let's remind people once again of when and where. April 21st to 23rd, 9 to 3 PM. That's correct, 9 to 3. And there's a lovely map out there showing major arteries with I think the landfills in orange right there. The big blue barn peeking over the words. So you should be able to spot it right away. Is that a building you put up new? No, it was put up years ago for storing hazardous waste when we collected hazardous waste. You've repurposed it. That's great, excellent. Another reuse example. And that just happens to be Earth Day weekend. That's why we did it. It's a wonderful opportunity to recognize the fact that we have limited resources on our Earth and we have to reuse everything, particularly manufactured stuff like this, that's already taken a lot of energy to manufacture. So instead of throwing them away, we're going to have it available for people to get. Give them a new life, great. Wow, this is a really exciting opportunity. I hope that everybody takes advantage of this and finds a way to get out there on Earth Day weekend. And also keep it in mind when you have things that are reusable that you could take them out to the landfill and donate them to make this even more effective. That's correct. Great. Well, I want to thank you so much for coming to tell us about this is a really exciting event. And another way we can make the little resources that we have here go further. That's right, thank you. And thank you for joining us today.