Even if the rain goes sideways, we’ll be taking electronic items for
recycling today. We are collecting your E-Waste until 2pm today!!

PEEPSHOW 2011 IS TONIGHT!

Spend Saturday night helping out an amazing Buffalo organization – Squeaky Wheel.

Eat, Drink, Dance, ART, ARTISTS and great Architecture.

Saturday February 26

8PM

DNIPRO Center 562 Genesee St.

Tickets at Sweet_ness 7.

for more info squeaky.org.

Winter is a difficult time at Buffalo ReUse. If you haven’t noticed our store is cold. But our incredible staff and crew are tough and hardy and do a yeoman’s job under these hard conditions. Winter is also a difficult time financially for ReUse. The pace of deconstruction and salvage slow. Lower volumes of stuff come in and it’s hard to entice people to visit us when it is 10 degrees in the store.

Every Little Bit Helps!

Thus we are issuing this appeal to let you know you can help support Buffalo ReUse’s missions by donating old scrap metal items. It doesn’t have to be large amounts of metal either. The old rusty baking sheet in the pantry, that cigar box of little wire clippings grandpa saved years ago, the obsolete valve the furnace guy replaced when you switched to modern heating and you can’t throw away because it is metal, that pile of aluminum pie tins and take-out containers under the sink, Grandma’s pair of broken scissors . . . I think you get the idea.

Scrap It Yourself?

Of course you could take these items to the metal recyclers but at 15 cents a pound for steel you might get 25 cents for that rusty old baking sheet. And you’d have to wait in a long line of menacing trucks to wait your turn to pull up on the scale – it’s pretty intimidating. However for us old bits of scrap metal add up and help Buffalo ReUse push through the slow seasons.

Help the Environment!

But if that weren’t reason enough consider this, your pantry will be clutter free and you will be helping the environment as well. Environmentally metals have and still do exact a very heavy environmental toll. In America the legacy of our industrial past has left many terrible and toxic scars across the land. From mountains of waste rock destroying vast ecosystems and flooded mines and pits producing acidic mine drainage into water supplies, to increased concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide and other emissions from the fuels used to mine and produce metal, and thousands of former industrial sites badly poisoned with everything from solvents to PCBS to toxic metals. This only mentions a few of the problems. Nowadays much of this work is done in places like Africa, Asia, and South America and is introducing industrial-scale environmental ruin to these places and their people.

Toxic Mudslide in Hungary

A particularly bad recent example is the toxic red mudslide that occurred in Hungary. That mudslide occurred when a levee containing a lake of chemical wastes from aluminum mining and processing failed and the reddish colored mud/toxic waste flooded over the land. Tributaries of the Danube and miles of land were poisoned and will not be safe for generations. Aluminum is an especially troublesome metal because it requires approximately four tons of bauxite to obtain 1 ton of aluminum. It also requires millions of gallons of water and tons of caustic chemicals and huge amounts of electricity to refine it. Aluminum is one of the most environmentally damaging metals despite being one of the easiest to recycle. Recycled aluminum uses one-third of the energy virgin aluminum does and recycled aluminum does not require mining or produce toxic red lakes.

How Can I Help?

So please bring your scrap metal to Buffalo ReUse at 298 Northampton Street, Buffalo NY 14208, any time we’re open (Tues-Sat 10-6, Sun 12-4, closed Monday), and we’ll gladly accept your donation. If you have a lot of scrap, we can come pick it up – just call us at 716-882-2800 and we’ll see what we can do to take it off your hands. Metals may be old, rusty, twisted and bent but we ask you follow the guidelines below.

Metal should NOT:

• Be soiled with food, chemicals, human, and animal wastes etc.
• Be less than 75% metal (i.e. little or no plastic, paper, cloth etc. attached)
• Contain ANY glass (storm windows and metal frames)

We cannot accept or dispose of the following:

• Propane, acetylene, oxygen or any pressurized tanks, chemical sprayer tanks, fire extinguishers, oil drums or paint cans with residues, etc.
• Tires (rims WITHOUT tires are acceptable)
• Batteries, PCB containing light ballasts or transformers, asbestos wrapped pipes, mercury switches and controls, or fluorescent tubes

Finally, no processing (e.g. removing glass) can be done at Buffalo ReUse and we cannot dispose of ANY non-metal items that are not acceptable. We reserve the right to reject any metals for any reason. So if in doubt or you have extremely large loads please call ahead, 716-882-2800.

Everyone at Buffalo ReUse would like to send out a huge thank you to folks at WNY Media, Buffalo Rising, Kristen Becker + Friends, Eric Crittenden, and Nietszche’s for hosting a great fundraising event last night! Festivus for the rest of us!!!

From our good friends at PUSH:

Let’s Go Buffalo!

The countdown to Buffalo Takes Manhattan IV continues. Thousands of wings, Bocce’s pizza, a tailgate party with Labatts and Flying Bison, an array of Buffalo-themed prizes, and a great dance party to boot.

We know that the Bills are a better team than their record suggests. To give them the extra edge they need to win a game, we will ask Steve Mesler, Olympic Gold Medalist, to lead us in a moment of silence, during which we will focus all of our positive energy on our favorite team as they prepare to beat the Lions the following day and garner their first win.

Other reasons to be there include:

• At 7:30 PM, right at the start of the party, we’ll screen two short films highlighting organizations, including PUSH, that are working to rebuild Buffalo’s historic neighborhoods and preserve its architectural treasures
• Several of Buffalo’s leading artists will show work at the party.
• A date with Steve Mesler, Buffalo’s Olympic Gold Medalist, will be auctioned off.
• Bocce’s pizza will be in effect. What else do you need to know!

Buffalo Takes Manhattan IV!
Saturday, November 13th, 7:30 PM to 1 AM
A Tailgate Party in Times Square
330 W. 42nd Street, 33rd Floor
$25 online, $30 at the door, food included

A free drink to those dressed in Buffalo tailgate apparel

Get your tickets now at this link.

Hey there ReSourceful Urbanites,

Saturday will be a great day to stop by the ReSource! We will be serving a hot dog lunch with baked treats. All proceeds will benefit one of our retail clerks, Bernard.

Bernard is a long time employee of Buffalo ReUse and shining smile in the ReSource. He’s always willing to lend a helping hand. He recently underwent minor surgery and won’t be able to come back to work for a month, so we’d like to do what we can to help him out.

Please stop by the ReSource noontime tomorrow for a hot dog lunch, some homemade goodies and good cheer. If you can, bring a baked good to share!

If you can’t join us for lunch but would still like to help out, please inquire at the

ReSource or contact Danielle at volunteer {at} buffaloreuse(.)org or call the Buffalo ReUse main office at 885-4131.

Thanks!!!

UPDATE: Thanks so much to everyone who came, bought hot dogs or donated to the tip jar on the front counter. Friends of Bernard and Buffalo ReUse contributed over $100, which was gratefully received by Bernard and his family. Thanks again!

If you’ve been following the blog and facebook, you know the reason we’re hosting tonight’s Talent & Treasure Auction is so we can raise at least $6,000 toward our stipend for our two current Americorps Members, Brad and Scott. But what you might not know is how much more that 6K gets us. For almost 2yrs now we’ve been truly blessed to work with Americorps WNY and the 6 members who have served with us, Michele Silberman, Matthew Lapennas, Ben Kaiser, Rachel Mathews, Scott Kozak and Brad Kujawski.
There is no way we could have started all we have been able to accomplish with the Tool Library, all of the community gardens, the free DIY workshops, volunteer coordination, store maintenance, neighborhood improvements, tabling events and our other events and shenanigans without them–we couldn’t have even done as fabulous a job with the Extreme Demo or the Extreme Premiere!
Although we have had hundreds of hours from volunteers, this crew has provided the necessary volunteer training and support and filled in the gaps when we were short on volunteers and staff.  Their service has been crucial to this organization.

In my opinion our Americorps Members have done more to create ReUse’s positive reputation in the community than any other single person in our organization. We cannot maintain our high level of activity or grow without them.
I hope that if you do support the mission of Buffalo ReUse, you will come to tonight’s auction. It is absolutely a worthy cause. If you cannot make it to tonight’s event, but you still want to make a donation toward our Americorps stipend, please click here to go to our secure Paypal page or you can also mail a check.   Please put “Americorps stipend” in the memo section.  I also invite you to click on the photo which will take you to hundreds of other photos that prove just how much our Americorps Members have done for Buffalo, our neighborhood and this organization.
Thank you for your support.

Probably one of the more unique things we’ve set aside for the auction is this pair of towel bars. I didn’t even know we had milk glass anything and then Ian opened up the china cabinet like a magician opening a forbidden closet–the only thing missing was his silk cape!  “Wow!” I said and then Ian pulled out 2 white wands–which turned out to be the hanging bars for a short face-towel and longer hand-towel bar.  The bar is milk glass and the mounting brackets are white porcelain.  They are flawless.  A similar one on-line is currently selling for over $100.  These pieces would be perfect in a baby’s nursery or to display small quilts.  If you attached enamel s-hooks from them you could even use them to hang several towels, coats or other clothes.
We also have a candy bowl with a grape motif for the auction and Ian says there are milk glass lamp globes in the china cabinet at the store too–just ask for them.
According to wiki, milk glass was originally made in Venice and most popular at the turn of the century.  The white opaque glass was achieved by adding a tin dioxide or bone ash.

You could add to your collection if you’re the winning bidder at the Talent & Treasure Auction Saturday night!  View the other pieces here.  Join us at the Buffalo Bar & Grille at 307 Louisiana St. from 8-10pm

Saturday, September 25th you’ll have the opportunity to bid on several types of special knobs at our Talent & Treasure Auction! Ian and Kevin have set aside a beautiful complete lock set for you–it has an amber glass knob, an art deco face plate and even the matching skeleton key!
They found a knob set that has an arabic motif and another small crystal french door knob with fluting? flutes? flutations? (idk–it’s just super fancy!)  Ian says, “Like the true crystal knobs they are very clear due to the high magnesium content in the glass and slow cooling rates. These are especially unique because we do not often see knobs so small and finely patterned as these.”

Different strokes for different folks–we’re also offering a studded metal knob and face plate set and a set of HUGE Harvard hinges!  ALSO, you can win a tour of Dr Dale Sponaugle’s impressive doorknob collection, known as, “THE best collection of doorknobs and Victorian door hardware in
the United States!”
Aside from the auction pieces, it will be a very amusing night. I hope you can bring a friend!

If you’d like to help with the Auction, we’ll need folks to help us transport and display the pieces, greeters and other general helpers–please email Danielle volunteer {at} buffaloreuse(.)org