One Person's Trash...
Burlington area residents and students scrapped their well worn couches, roller blades, skis and other miscellaneous bric-a-brac yesterday at the annual Spring Move Out Project (SMOP).
SMOP is a collaborative swap provided by the City of Burlington, Chittenden Solid Waste District, Recycle North, The Center for Community and Neighborhoods, as well as the University of Vermont, Champlain, and St. Michael's colleges. For the past 10 years they have invited Burlingtonians and local undergrads to a cluttered Loomis Street: a junkyard for some, a free IKEA for others.
SMOP not only recycles the city's undesirables, it keeps soggy and haggard goods off porches and curbs.
"There was a problem with materials being left on the streets and cluttering the streets. So we turned it into a community event where the locals benefit from what the students are leaving behind," says Marge Keough, the business outreach coordinator for CSWD, whose favorite running shoes came from the SMOP a few years ago.
Aside from collecting, disposing, and keeping the local environment clean there was also a bake sale. One Loomis Street mother and her friends took the opportunity to raise money for their children's Fourth of July Parade.
Free stuff and cookies always equals a good time.
Video edited by Will Ryan.
