Recycle and Make Money / Make Art

Last year my iMac gave up the ghost. I’ve kept it around all year, with the desire to turn it into an art project of some sort. However, I never came up with a great idea. After a year of it taking up space, I decided it was time for it to go. It didn’t work, I had taken out the harddrive, and I wanted to keep the keyboard and mouse. Would Goodwill even accept it? Probably not, so that meant I needed to take it to the city dump which I think costs $5. And I’d probably be contributing to a landfill. There had to be someone who would take it and use it in some way!

Through reading about recycling, I came across gazelle.com. Gazelle, will pay you for your cell phones, iPads, Macs and other Apple devices. And along the way, they do some good for the planet by finding these devices new homes. This was exactly what I was looking for! I plugged in my information into their website. They sent me a shipping label. I spent $2 on a box at Home Depot. Packed up my iMac, harddrive, and cord; and took the box to FedEx. I received a confirmation email when they received my box. I have received a second email stating they have inspected my computer and that I should have my Amazon gift certificate for $21.50 in 3 to 5 days. So instead of contributing to a landfill, I have recycled plus made $20!

You can donate a lot of your recyclable items to a reuse center so that artists can remake your stuff into art. I did a quick search and found these centers: SMART! Scrap Made Art, a new art reuse center in Nashville, The East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse in Oakland, CA., Trash, Inc.: Creative Reuse Center in Ashville, NC., The Long Beach Depot For Creative ReUse, Long Beach, CA, and many more.

For those in Nashville: SMART! will be an art reuse center where artists, school teachers, craftsmen, seamstress and anyone in between can purchase unique, recycled items for any arts and crafts project. Customers will be able to purchase these recyclable items – from Popsicle sticks to plastic water bottle tops – in bulk for their projects at affordable prices. Along with providing a cool new art store for Nashville, SMART! will benefit Progress Inc.’s mission of giving adults with intellectual disabilities meaningful employment opportunities. The clients we support will eventually work at SMART! with the assistance of management staff.

You can donate: paper, plastic, metal, glass, wood and sewing items and more! To see a list, click here. Or for more information about donating to SMART!, contact Kelli Monday at k.monday@progress-inc.org.

Image Credit: Painter’s Wreath” made from repurposed paint brushes, glue and wire is made by artist Cara Enteles as seen on recyclart.org‘s blog.