Take It Or Leave It Reopens in Chappaqua

by Bill Kuebler

The new New Castle Take it or Leave It shed (TIOLI) reopened for the season at its new location last Saturday to rave reviews. The shed can be found in the train station parking lot behind the Shell gas station just a few steps away from the Chappaqua Farmers Market. 

What is a Take it or Leave it shed? There are three principles in Recycling called the 3R’s—Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The Take it or Leave It exists to facilitate Reuse.

Reusing items helps reduce the need for new resources to be used in production and it keeps old items from entering the waste stream. The concept is simple. New Castle residents can bring items to the TIOLI that they no longer need and feel someone else could reuse or repurpose. The items are then put on display and New Castle residents along with folks from out of town can take them. For example, last Saturday someone brought it a vintage Kerosene Space Heater. While it was rusted we knew someone would want it, so we accepted it. The new owner is going to sand and paint it and turn it into a very cool plant stand. 

The fundamental mission of the TIOLI is to keep things that we can reasonably expect someone else to be able to use from being hauled to landfills. The spirit behind the shed is that if someone sees something they or a friend can use they take it. We get a very interesting assortment of items. In past years we have taken stuffed pheasants, kitchen tables, sharks in a bottle, wicker chairs, lava lamps, and the list goes on. We hope visitors will not take items from the shed to merely turn around and sell them. That is not what the shed is about. Bring what you no longer have use for. Take what you want or need. Volunteers, with the town's help, work very hard to keep the shed up and running and hope everyone takes home something that will make them happy. 

The TIOLI also has economic benefits for the town. When items get taken from the shed, town residents will not have to pay the carting company to have them hauled away to a landfill. Sometimes, unfortunately, some items do not get taken and we are forced, because of lack of space, to consign them to a town dumpster. And that is the reason only town residents can leave things.

The current hours for the TIOLI shed are 9 to 12 Saturday mornings through October. 

Acceptable items must be clean, and in good working condition. Only New Castle 
residents can leave things at the shed. The volunteers have the right to ask to see ID for residents dropping off items and can reject any thing we deem not acceptable. A list of items we will and will not accept is posted at the shed. Before anyone goes to the trouble of loading and brining down any large items we might reject, we suggest you come down and talk to us—or better yet, bring a photo. 

We thank all our supporters who worked so hard to get us reopened. Hopefully when you come down and visit us you will find something to take that you were just about to buy or find something unusual that you never knew you needed.
 
And we can always use more volunteers.