City Of Fort Worth: New Life For Old Furniture

Press release from City of Fort Worth:

August 26, 2021

Just in time for the start of a new school year, Fort Worth ISD educators were given the opportunity to obtain old furniture from the Fort Worth Public Library for use in their classrooms.

Over the years, several pieces of old furniture — from chairs and desks to storage units and equipment — have been gathered from various city departments and stored at the Central Library in hopes that it all would be repurposed. Now it has.

Under a new city ordinance, municipal departments are allowed to donate city-owned office supplies and equipment to local educators, with the help of nonprofit organizations like The Welman Project, which aims to repurpose surplus materials and support local classrooms.

At this private event, about 143 teachers representing 82 Fort Worth schools took enough furniture to fill 22 dumpsters. That's nearly 4,000 cubic feet worth of repurposed materials that was diverted from the landfill and is now serving a new purpose.

Teachers were overjoyed, not only by the amount of free materials to fill their classrooms, but also with the easy process. Fort Worth Code Compliance-Solid Waste staff also showed up to lend a hand, literally. Solid Waste crew members assisted Welman volunteers by hauling items chosen by the teachers and loading their vehicles along the curbside pickup line.

While teachers benefited greatly from this event, the City of Fort Worth also wins big. The new ordinance falls in line with the Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan. The plan is the City of Fort Worth’s largest green initiative to date and serves as a roadmap for how waste is to be managed in Cowtown over the next 20 years.

To learn more about the new city material reuse ordinance, email the Materials Management Program. 

Photo: It was all hands on deck at the recent donation event, where Code Compliance-Solid Waste employees helped volunteers from The Welman Project provide repurposed furniture to Fort Worth teachers.

Get articles like this in your inbox. Subscribe to City News.

This press release was produced by City of Fort Worth. The views expressed here are the author’s own.