By Gretchen Wing
Special to the Weekly
Volunteers for the Lopez Solid Waste Disposal District – a.k.a. the Dump – are due some extra celebration at their annual gathering this week. At the Washington State Recyclers Association convention in Spokane on May 18, Lopez Dump was awarded Nonprofit Recycler of the Year. Those already proud of this community institution should prepare to feel prouder. And thanks to the results of their thrice-monthly weighing of intake items, Take It Or Leave It volunteers might feel proudest of all.
From September 2014 to April 2015, TIOLI volunteers processed an average of 1,400 pounds per three-hour Dump day. That’s just under 500 pounds an hour, and that’s off-season. When Dump hours switch to the extended 11-4 summer schedule, June 21-Sept. 21, and Lopez’s population swells, those numbers will swell too.
Processing “leave it” items is a challenging but rewarding job, Outreach and Education Coordinator Nikyta Palmisani explains. Besides sorting useful items into categories and dated piles, volunteers often send people with obsolete e-waste, certain plastics and appliances, and clothing over to the recycling area. “We’re trying to be that first point where people can divert what would traditionally go into the waste stream.” When Palmisani and Facility Manager David Zapalac received the award on behalf of the Lopez community, including TIOLI visionaries and long-standing volunteers Neil Hanson and Ona Blue, “We were the talk of the WSRA. People were amazed at how many things we do with such a streamlined operation in such a small space.”
The main benefits of TIOLI are obvious: free sorting of old stuff, free acquisition of “new” stuff and avoidance of garbage fees. “It’s a gift to the community, by the community,” says Palmisani. Less obvious but no less important is the opportunity for education. “Working at TIOLI helps folks see the amount of consumption, and it changes their behavior,” Palmisani says. In her “Three R’s” outreach, TIOLI makes the difficult concepts of “Reduce” and “Re-use” click with school kids, who then educate their parents to go beyond “Recycle.”
Then there’s community spirit, which TIOLI seems to embody more than ever these days. What other transfer station has artwork, and a dump fairy? She’s the winged doll suspended from the ceiling, Palmisani explains. “The dump fairy is the one where you say, ‘Oh, I really need a spatula today; I really need a pair of boots my size … and then the dump fairy flies around the island, finding people who aren’t using these items, and she whispers to them, ‘Today’s the day to take that pair of boots and that spatula to the Dump!’” When the person in need is magically united with the needed object, Palmisani says, “We lower the Dump Fairy and take a picture of the person with the object. It happens so often.”
TIOLI’s impact ripples beyond the Lopez community. Immediately after the Spokane award, the Sustainability Director for Microsoft came to Lopez to learn about adapting its model to her corporation. An Amazon.com employee is reportedly running an “Amazon TIOLI” from the same inspiration. More stories of the dump’s mainland impact can be viewed on the Lopez Island Dump Facebook page, and at lopezsolidwaste.org.
With 3,388 on-site volunteer hours in 2014 – not including thousands more by the board, SWAP, and other volunteers – the entire Dump (recycling and TIOLI) depends upon community involvement. At TIOLI, Palmisani emphasizes, “Each individual contribution creates this system: volunteering especially, and leaving stuff. But we need people to take stuff, otherwise we have storage issues.” This volunteers-donators-reusers cycle, like the familiar triangle-of-arrows “Recycle” icon, relies on individuals. Without a constant infusion of new volunteers, TIOLI cannot sustain itself. So don’t be surprised if you hear that dump fairy whisper in your ear, “Come on down to the Dump today and volunteer!”
