SWAP awards the Sarah Eppenbach Scholarship of $500.00 towards higher education to a graduating high school senior. Applicants need to practice an active interest in caring for the environment. Because of the generous donations to the scholarship, SWAP awarded three scholarships to members of the 2020 graduating class. Hazel Arden, Ty Greacen, and Quinn Steckler have each demonstrated a care for the planet, leadership and an understanding of team. The scholarship is given in honor of Sarah Eppenbach, founder of SWAP. Sarah Eppenbach was a force of nature, albeit in a quiet/determined way. Lopez was very blessed with Sarah’s commitment and involvement in the Community, bringing her experience and wisdom to each situation she encountered with gentle diplomacy and grace. With each Community activity Sarah chose to embrace, she demonstrated two critical skills that all should learn to master. The first skill is 'leadership'. For Sarah, leadership was an art. She knew when to lead, and when to follow; when to speak and when to listen. She was always thoughtful and fair. Most importantly, she understood that a strong leader encourages others, which leads to the second skill, team player. All successful enterprises, of which SWAP’s support of the Lopez dump is one and our library is another, are comprised of teams that include both good leadership and complementary skills. Sarah understood how necessary teamwork is, and surrounded herself with people that worked well together. Assembling and maintaining great teams is also an art that Sarah understood. Realistically, Sarah stands as an example to us all, as one who knew few limits as to what could be accomplished with good leadership, a great team, and of course, a fair amount of effort.

The Take It or Leave It (TIOLI) has been closed for nearly three months and LSWDD estimates there are 40-70 TONS of donations just on Lopez Island. Many households have reported that they used the extra time at home during the pandemic to do deep spring cleaning and have accumulated large piles of donations. The TIOLI is planned to re-open in Phase 3, but to help us manage this huge amount of goods, we put together an idea we are calling “Free Pile Tour of Lopez” for the last weekend of June: Saturday and Sunday, June 27-28. Very similar to the studio tour and home tour, where folks drive a self guided tour following a map, we invite folks who have donations to create a “free pile” on their driveway. People who have lived in metropolitan areas might already be very familiar with this phenomena of leaving free goods in piles on the curb or at the end of driveways for anyone to take what they wish. In this case, we are also inviting folks who have large amounts of free goods or want to be featured to send us their address so we can put pins on a downloadable map comprising the “Free Tour of Lopez”. Participants assume all responsibility for their goods, obtaining permissions to place items on driveways, set up and clean up. This is simply an opportunity for a socially distanced and safe gift exchange of goods, neighbor to neighbor. Helpful hints for making reusable goods desirable for adoption are to make the offering neat and tidy, to add clear signage, and attractive displays. Like familiar mainland days of Garage or Estate sale hopping, the “Free Pile Tour of Lopez” hopes to be a fun and engaging way for Lopezians to exchange reusable goods. We hope that you enjoy the “Free Pile Tour of Lopez” in the spirit of reuse that is such a hallmark of Lopez Island culture. If you would like to be added to the map, or have questions, please email Nikyta at nikytap@lopezsolidwaste.org.

On site changes at LSWDD as precautionary measures for Covid-19: Changes to drive up window: -Two Lanes: To reduce person to person contact, we now have two lanes of traffic when you come up the hill. You will now see a sign that says: PAID GARBAGE to the left: this will direct you to the cashier booth so you can pay for your garbage disposal. The same sign directs RECYCLING ONLY to the right lane, where you will bypass the cashier booth and head directly into the recycle plaza to get in and out as quickly as possible. You will be stopped here as we are metering cars, only 9 cars allowed into the recycle plaza at one time. Changes at the cashier booth: -New faces: LSWDD has reduced it’s staff to three teams. So you may see some new faces in the cashier booth depending on when you come. This way if one team gets sick, we have non-contaminated coverage with another two teams. -No Cash, please: We have requested that you NOT pay in cash if you can help it. We prefer checks or credit cards. -6’ distance from Cashier Booth: You may be asked to pull in 6 feet away from the cashier booth, and use a long handled basket to pass payment into the booth. This is to protect our employees and YOU. -No Receipts: We will not be issuing receipts at this time unless requested. This helps reduce in the passing of items back and forth. -Metering cars: If car volumes are higher than we can accommodate parking in a 6 foot spacing between each car, you will be metered into the site. We only have capacity for 9 cars to be recycling at a time. So please, be prepared to be patient, and PRE SORT your recycling at home so you can get in and out QUICKLY. We also recommend coming at lower volume times— which are Fridays and Saturdays. Sunday afternoon is our HIGHEST volume time, and we recommend you avoid coming then if at all possible. Changes to Recycle Plaza Layout for Self Separated Recycling: -No volunteers on site: we will have an employee in the cashier booth and one on the “floor” so please be patient with us if you have questions. We have asked our volunteers to “stay home and stay healthy” per Governors orders. -6 foot space around each tote: You will see two totes in a row for the same material. For example, there will be two identical totes right next to each other to collect #1 plastics, etc). We have done this to reduce the amount of times an employee needs to change the totes during the day. The totes will be clearly marked, and there are no new changes to the materials we currently recycle. -No TIOLI donations: And just a reminder that the TIOLI is closed for the foreseeable future and is not receiving any donations. Thank you for your patience and flexibility during this challenging time.

Take the survey to give your input for the Lopez Island Tool Lending Library (LITLL) here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DWCPDHG

The cost of recycling printers has skyrocketed to roughly $16 a printer, without any guarantee that full recycling of the printer is actually taking place. Rather than pay high fees for a product likely to end up in the landfill, old printers will no longer be accepted as recycling at LSWDD. Printers are unfortunately a “non-program” item that the state’s E-Waste subsidies do not cover. LSWDD is encouraging customers with printers to recycle these by sending them back to the manufacturer or by taking advantage of printer and ink recycling programs at box stores near the I-5 corridor. Customers are encouraged to check out Staples, Office Depot, and Best Buy. Hewlett Packard (HP) takes back nearly all of their products back for free as a part of their consumer buyback and recycle programs. LSWDD tested out HP’s system and found its directions clear and easy. Placing your machine in a box and shipping it off is the best way to recycle your printer for free To Recycle Printers through HP’s “Consumer Buyback and Planet Partners Recycling Program” go to https://hphho.tradeups.com/Customers/51/GetQuote.aspx. Enter your product name and number and a quote will be generated for you. Create a customer profile. In 24 hours, you will be sent a confirmation and a shipping label for to you print to return your HP Product free of charge. On Lopez, you may call FED Ex for a free home pick up: 1.800.463.3339 or https://smallbusiness.fedex.com/manage-pickup.html. Simply put your printer in a shipping box, (available at the Dump!), affix the label and leave it for FED Ex pick up. Once your printer has been received, you will receive a confirmation email. Staples box stores also participate in printer recycling programs and will accept other brands of printers besides HP. The closest Staples is located at 105 Mall Way, Marysville, WA 98270. Currently, Office Depot stores will give you $2 for each printer cartridge you return to their stores up to $20 in store credit. Although this takes a little more effort, recycling this way puts more responsibility on the manufacturers and saves you money.