LSWDD would like to encourage Lopezians to package their old newspapers in paper grocery sacks and place them in the reuse cabinet in the Recycle Plaza for islanders who need newspapers to light their fires. The gentleman who delivered Seattle Times, New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal is no longer delivering. He used to bring the undelivered newspapers to the recycle plaza. LSWDD gets asked at least half a dozen times a weekend when we will get more. It’s a service a lot of islanders counted on, and we appreciate Lopezian’s ability to reduce and reuse in useful and thoughtful ways. Thank you in advance for helping support this effort to keep our community’s hearths warm and bright this Holiday season.

Beginning in October, the Take It or Leave It (TIOLI) reopened for donations by appointment and for weekend shopping. The process has been working beautifully and has eliminated much of the stress and chaos for staff, volunteers, donators, and shoppers. LSWDD wanted to take a moment to thank all the Lopezians for their consideration in bringing in beautiful, reusable donations, adapting to the new appointment system, and their graciousness when items could not be accepted. As the season now transitions into colder and slower autumn, LSWDD will be transitioning its donation receiving day to SUNDAYS beginning November 8th. Lopezians will continue to be asked to make an appointment in advance, as this helps moderate the flow of donations and provisions for safe social distancing for intake. Appointment are very easy to make and can be made by visiting www.lopezsolidwaste.org. Beginning November 7th, Shopping days will now be on SATURDAYS only. LSWDD appreciates the community’s on-going patience with the limitations of this time in history, and continued adaptability to change. LSWDD is also ever thankful to our loyal and dedicated volunteer force for working shifts and continuing to exceed all expectations in their ability to clean, organize, and put away items -- all with a smile! LSWDD is grateful for every part in this circle of reuse that has come together in kindness to make it all work. THANK YOU! Lopez Island shoppers also returned in October, and many report their gratitude in receiving such high quality items for free that have been organized. LSWDD is also very grateful to all the shoppers for wearing masks, physically distancing, and waiting in line to accommodate the 15 person maximum capacity. It is a joy to see items being reused on the island, eliminating the need to spend money in purchasing new items and the eliminating the emissions that are generated by off island and online shopping. Thank you for being part of the solution to a more sustainable world, just by the simple act of exchanging usable items in local community. Photo: TIOLI Volunteers getting seriously ready for Halloween!

Lopez Solid Waste Disposal District (LSWDD) continues to adapt to the ever-changing landscape that is life in the year 2020. After six months of pandemic, there is still no real estimate for when San Juan County will move into Phase 3. LSWDD is sensitive to many households’ ongoing needs for free, reusable goods as we approach autumn and beyond. To that end, LSWDD has decided to reopen the Take It Or Leave It (TIOLI) on a limited basis at the beginning of October. Please note that fall hours for the dump also begin in October. Friday, Saturday, Sunday LSWDD will be open for trash and recycling 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Mondays will be closed for trash and recycling. To help alleviate the bottle neck of goods waiting to be re-homed, LSWDD will be receiving donations for the month of October only on Mondays from 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. Appointment are strongly encouraged. This will help LSWDD staff and volunteers manage the initial stages of TIOLI’s reopening. Donations will be limited to 3 paper shopping bags of clean items in good condition and one larger item per visit. Also, due to interruptions in supply chains, LSWDD is not currently able to recycle textiles and clothing. Therefore, please only bring clean clothing in good wearable condition that is weather appropriate to Fall and Winter. To schedule an appointment for TIOLI donation drop offs please go to: https://signup.com/client/invitation2/secure/8870355456736220124/false#/invitation Shopping days in October will be Saturdays and Sundays during normal hours of operation: 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. TIOLI will be closed on Fridays. To see more detailed information about what can and cannot be donated go to our Take It or Leave It page here: https://www.lopezsolidwaste.org/take-it-or-leave-it

Lopez Island has participated in the inter-island event called the “Great Islands Clean Up (GICU) for the last five years which helps keep our roads and beaches clean of litter. This year, the Covid pandemic shifted the Spring GICU to a do-it-yourself month long effort. Thank you to the many dedicated households and volunteers who participated this year and in years past! For this Fall’s GICU we are inviting everyone to come out and be an Islands Superhero for a whole week! All the island partners agreed on a focused week long household/individual effort beginning Monday Sept 28 and running through October 4, 2020. In keeping with our County’s Phase 2 guidelines, the event be a masks required, socially distanced, and no congregating safe event, but still should provide a chance for people of all ages to get outside, get some exercise, and help keep our islands clean of litter. Households and individuals are welcome to sign up for a road route by contacting Nikyta Palmisani at nikytap@lopezsolidwaste.org or a beach by contacting Skeet Townley at jtownley@blm.gov. This year, all our islands are very aware of the many households who may be looking for meaningful and educational creative outlets. To that end, this year has a fun Salish Sea Themed Yard Art making component. Participants will be encouraged to come pick up a wooden garden stake at LSWDD aka the Dump which will then be the structure to build a Salish Sea themed art sculpture out of the trash that was picked up. Watch this instructional video for ideas for how to create a long lasting and fun art creation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUM-aWwb6wI&t=4s Households are encouraged to conduct their litter removal first, then using what they find, create their yard art for display at LSWDD. Finished Yard Art is asked to be dropped off during business hours at LSWDD beginning Friday, October 2 and no later than 3 pm on Sunday, October 4. Visitors to LSWDD will then have the opportunity to watch an individual/household effort become a community effort through the amassing yard art display. In this way, Lopez comes together to make our island cleaner, more fun and creative! To help connect our work here with the larger global issues, share with your kids and households this this National Geographic 4 minute film made on another island, Hawaii. It beautifully articulates the importance of beach clean ups and features the kids who participated: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKFV9IquMXA

BlueSnake CandleCo. is a Lopez Island small business focused on the creation of conscious, sustainable, functional and artistic firelight for the home. Kerry Ratza is inspired by the colors and smells of Lopez and endeavors to do them honor with her blends of 100% US grown soy wax, all natural essential oils and the purest dyes available. The wax is poured into glass containers sourced at the LSWDD, directly from the community that emptied the bottles and brought them to the recycling center at the dump. Several volunteers and employees there have contributed to the collection effort by picking out the particular bottles sought after by candle creator. These include 48oz kombucha bottles and top shelf liquor bottles. The candles and other rescued glass items can be found at Blossom Grocery and Paper Scissors on the rock. Look for them in the near future at the Skarpari store, set to open in the village soon and at Skarpari.com online artisan shop.

The Household Hazardous Waste Round-Up on Lopez is scheduled for Sunday, September 27, 2020, 11 am - 2 pm and will be held at Public Works, next to LSWDD (aka the Dump). For a list of items accepted, please visit: https://www.sanjuanco.com/351/Hazardous-Waste

TIOLI Reopening has been delayed until the county is approved to move into Phase 3. Since we do not know when that is, we have delayed our re-opening from July 19th to a date to be determined by the county's announcement of safely entering Phase 3. Thank you for your patience and understanding with this rapidly changing pandemic time. Please continue to check our website for the latest updates: www.lopezsolidwaste.org Thank you!

Take It Or Leave It (TIOLI) Opening Soon With Changes The Lopez Take It or Leave It (TIOLI) is a legacy that Neil Hansen established for Lopez Island and a tradition that Lopez Solid Waste Disposal District (LSWDD) intends to carry forward. The mission of TIOLI is to provide a community space for the free exchange of reusable items and to divert what cannot be reused into recycle streams and kept out of landfill. Due to the pandemic, this closure time has afforded LSWDD the opportunity to do deep cleaning, reorganizing, and update signage. LSWDD has also been able to re-evaluate how overall systems are working, and consider what could be improved. This overall upgrade furthers the ability for TIOLI to continue its mission. In keeping with the Governor’s multi-phased re-opening, the TIOLI will also have a multi-phased reopening to help maintain safety protocols. This will begin with dividing the week into two shopping only days or “Shop”days and two donation only or “Drop” days. Beginning mid-July, “Shop” days will be Friday and Saturday, and donation “Drop” days will be Sunday and Monday. Since TIOLI has been closed for a long period of time, LSWDD is also limiting the amount of donations accepted from a single person/household to 3 paper shopping bags of items (or equivalent volume) and one object/tool/furniture item. The pandemic has broken supply chains and reduced recycling streams placing new limitations on what can be recycled.  Previously, TIOLI averaged 1,000 pounds an hour of donations because robust recycle streams could accept different types of metals, paper, textiles, electronics, electrical wire, and mainly metal appliances. Currently, TIOLI will be extremely limited on the ability to accept textiles and clothing. Pre-Covid 19, LSWDD was shipping nearly 4,000 lbs of culled textiles per month off island for reuse and recycling. At this time, it is still unknown if LSWDD will be able to ship any textiles off island. This is a huge change! Please be patient with the slower process as the LSWDD continues to monitor markets for the reuse and recycling of items. Spacing out donation days and shopping days will help provide more space for physical distancing of both donators and volunteers and staff, and provide the ability to quarantine objects for several days before placing them out for “shop” days. LSWDD will also have more extensive PPE’s for intake volunteers and staff. LSWDD asks everyone donating goods or shopping at TIOLI to wear a mask and use hand sanitizer. Like in the recycle plaza, LSWDD will meter out cars from the cashier booth to limit traffic to 4 cars at a time in the loading and unloading zone in front of TIOLI. Car and foot traffic will also be limited on “shop” days to keep physical distancing within the TIOLI. Thank you for your continued patience and kindness with all staff and volunteers. Some basic rules of thumb for all donations are that all items should be clean, well sorted and organized, gently used, and fully functioning. All items will be inspected by staff or a volunteer and accepted or rejected based on these criteria: 1) space for the item, 2) good condition, working, and have all parts, and 3) availability of a recycling stream. We will be extremely limited on any textiles and shoes donations. Please only bring clothing, linens/bedding and shoes that are in especially good condition. Please visit LSWDD’s website for the latest news updates, for a comprehensive list of acceptable donations and what cannot take at this time www.lopezsolidwaste.org LSWDD staff & volunteers aim to keep TIOLI a treasured service of Lopez. Thank you for your understanding and patience with the phased approach of TIOLI getting back up and running. LSWDD looks forward to seeing you for both shopping and donating soon!

Here is the link to the google map of all 70 pins of Free Piles all over Lopez Island! Tour begins Saturday, June 27 at 8 am and goes until Sunday, June 28 at 6 pm. Map: https://goo.gl/maps/18PSt3Av8yrW16Yc6 Please be respectful, follow signs, and give plenty of physical distance. Thank you for participating in the Free Pile Tour of Lopez! Also, here is a list of all the addresses:

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.

Summer Hours begin Friday May 29, 2020 We will be open 11-4 pm Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. We hope to reopen Take It or Leave It in stages starting in Phase 3. Please continue to visit our website for updates. Also, Household Hazardous Waste Round Up has been rescheduled to Sunday, September 27, 2020 10 am - 1 pm.