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.
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