PATHWAYS PROFILE
Community Forklift: A Vital Resource for the Home and Community
craze. The trend cycle is moving rapidly, and constant redecorating has become the expectation. It is a modern farmhouse one day, maxi - malist and moody the next. Add to this the updates and renovations that are made as home- owners’ needs change. A bathroom is added, a kitchen is expanded, and a home office is turned into a bedroom. With each of these phases there’s change and new items are brought in. This evolution has also brought a mindset of disposability. Furni- ture that was once built to survive many moves and decades has been forgotten in lieu of items that are fast to put together and cheap to buy. There’s no expectation that flat pack furniture will last from your first apartment through your forever home. Similarly, contractors who are hired to demo a kitchen are tasked with getting rid of countertops, appliances, fixtures, and lighting in response to changing tastes and styles. These items that are easily discarded are now commonplace, and homeowners, eager to reno- vate and redecorate quickly, have often found it’s easier to trash their kitchen cabinets or out-of-style dresser than try to reuse. Yet all of these items could continue to have a useful life. This whirlwind of home updates has led to increased dumping of furniture, decorative items, and construction materials in American landfills. Year after year, the problem of waste becomes increasingly pervasive, and according to a 2018 EPA study, as much as 40 percent of the U.S. waste stream is composed of building materials. What’s more, landfills are a major contributor to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions, and also negatively impact the communities surrounding them. The by-products of solid waste can impact heart and lung health, and can affect chronic conditions such
BY HEATHER BIEN
Walk into Community Forklift’s Edmonston, Maryland, reuse warehouse on a Saturday afternoon, and expect to see as many types of people as there are architectural styles in the DMV. There’s the couple tackling their first renovation, hoping to find enough tile for a small powder room. A contractor ogling over original Victorian fire - place mantles for their client’s row home. A young twenty-something in their first apartment, with their eye on vintage pieces discarded by someone whose style outgrew their family heirlooms. A small business owner looking for low-cost materials to use in building out their new space. Or the homeowner in need looking for a gently-used refriger- ator that they’ll receive through one of the organization’s community programs. If there was ever a place where the old adage, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”, comes alive, it’s in this no frills warehouse overflowing with salvaged and surplus building materials and home goods. For nearly twenty years, Community Forklift has been a pillar of the DC community. A spot where those across the broader metro area plan any afternoon pilgrimage, hoping to source salvaged materials and secondhand furniture. And, while that’s the reuse warehouse’s most visible mission for home enthusiasts, the organization’s impact reaches far beyond gorgeous old mantels and retro light fixtures. Com - munity Forklift’s mission is multi-pronged, focused not only on res - cuing and reusing home goods, but on making a sustainable environ- mental impact, helping create comfortable homes for our neighbors, and community building. Community Forklift’s mission started in 2005, when a group of DC-area architects and home professionals became increasingly con - cerned about the amount of waste in their industry. They had stock- piled materials — good, usable materials — but there wasn’t a way to redistribute that surplus to those who would be able to put it to use in their own homes. There was a clear problem, and Community Forklift was launched as the sustainable solution. “Six hundred million tons of construction debris are sent to land- fills annually in the United States alone. Community Forklift sees this as an opportunity to redirect those materials and turn them into a community benefit. We connect supplies with people who can use them, and we divert more than 150,000 items from landfills through our warehouse every year,” explains Executive Director Trey Davis. Those supplies have become a significant waste diversion and land - fill use reduction effort, with homeowners, building material suppli - ers, and contractors donating home goods, surplus stock, misorders, and architectural salvage. Because Community Forklift is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, these material donations are tax deductible for donors, and the supplies are then sold at a below market rate, and in some cases To understand how we got to this point, it’s necessary to look at the larger tide shifts in the home industry. Take furniture, for example: according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Americans threw out over 12 million tons of furniture and home furnishings in 2018, six times the amount measured in 1960. As home renovation shows and influencers have taken hold on the American public, people are paying more attention to their decor and imbuing it with the latest provided for free, to the community. Waste in the Home Industry
The Community Forklift warehouse overflows with salvaged and surplus building materials and home goods. as asthma. With minority and lower-income communities being more likely to live closer to waste sites, landfills are often closely tied to is - sues surrounding environmental justice for these communities. How Waste Became A Warehouse This is where Community Forklift’s sustainability mission makes an outsized impact. By making donated building materials and home goods available to the public, Community Forklift gives residents, lo- cal businesses, and building professionals a place to give supplies a second life. They can donate the things they don’t want or need rather
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PATHWAYS—Spring 24—9
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