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Jun 25, 2007

"Waste is worse than loss. The time is coming when every person who lays claim to ability will keep the question of waste before him constantly. The scope of thrift is limitless." --Thomas Alva Edison

From Furniture Rags to Riches

There's always a place to sit, no matter how many people crowd around Rose Tourje's conference table. The huge table is in the middle of a California warehouse -- one that's full of chairs and other office furnishings. Tourje is founder of Asset Network for Education Worldwide, or ANEW, a 2-year-old Los Angeles organization that provides free used office furniture to struggling nonprofit groups. The furnishings are donated by private companies that are relocating or remodeling, and damaged or worn-out things are disassembled and separated into piles of metal, wood, plastic and carpet to be ground up and recycled. "We act as though there's no such thing as a landfill," said Tourje. That means that expensive-looking furnishings from downtown high-rises can end up in a skid row mission, in a Pasadena schoolhouse or on an Indian reservation in Arizona.