Neighbor News
Cambridge Resident to Speak at National Reuse Conference
Cambridge's Matthew St. Onge will speak about building materials reuse on October 17 at a national conference convening in Somerville
Boston Building Resources Executive Director Matthew St. Onge, a Cambridge resident, will speak to a national audience about his organization’s work at the ReuseConex conference, coming to the Boston area in October.
The conference, to be held October 17–19, will bring together people who work in the reuse sector from around the nation and beyond. St. Onge will be part of a panel on building materials reuse on October 17, 11:00 a.m. to noon. For more than 20 years, he has directed the Reuse Center at Boston Building Resources, which takes in donations of reusable building materials, including kitchen cabinet sets, doors, windows, and hardware.
Boston Building Resources will also be one of three stops on a reuse community tour for conference attendees set for Wednesday, October 19. BBR is located in Boston’s Mission Hill neighborhood.
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In light of climate change, environmental leaders and policymakers are taking a harder look at maximizing reuse, the overlooked second “R” in the familiar phrase, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” Reuse prevents good-quality materials from ending up in landfills, allows items to be sold affordably, and makes the most of the raw materials and energy invested in producing the items. The ReuseConex conference is focused on reuse as part of a circular economy: one that ideally has no waste and which accounts for the true costs of extracting, transporting, and consuming the earth’s resources.
While reuse is commonly confused with recycling, its focus is quite different. Recycling is a way of discarding items so they don’t end up in a landfill—such as melting them down or grinding them up to be made into different products. Reuse is focused on not discarding the items at all, but using them in their current state. Other presentations at ReuseConex include creative reuse, make-share-repair efforts, aspiring to zero-waste university communities, and the metrics of reuse.
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Registration is underway for ReuseConex, which will convene at the Holiday Inn Boston Bunker Hill in Somerville. The conference will also include a free public screening of the film Reuse, Because You Can’t Recycle the Planet on Tuesday, October 18, 7:30–9:00 p.m.
More information, including a detailed conference schedule, is available at www.ReuseConex.org.
