![]() In addition, Goodwill Industries donates clothing and household goods to be used on the promotional boards placed at city facilities. The Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce has been a garage sale partner since 1992, and it donates hundreds of city maps, which are distributed at local 7-Eleven convenience stores. ![]() However, the residents keep their proceeds.įrom the start, the city has worked with private- sector partners. The city pays for the promotion of the event. A full-page ad runs in the area's major newspaper listing the sellers' addresses and merchandise for sale. Press releases and public service announcements are circulated to promote the sale to potential shoppers throughout Santa Clara County and the San Francisco Bay area. The promotional packet also includes a list of non-profit agencies that accept household goods donations. Residents who are interested in holding a sale are sent a registration packet, which includes a welcoming letter, tips for holding a sale and a registration sheet where they list their top merchandise. Residents are notified two months prior to the sales through the solid waste program's semi-annual newsletter and other city publications. City staff begins planning this event from six to nine months prior to the event's date. The garage sales are held at residents' homes during one weekend close to the city's annual spring cleanup. The key campaign message to both buyers and sellers is reuse it, resell it now or even give it away just keep it out of the landfill. Instilling a sense of personal responsibility for waste reduction is a critical element in the city's plan. Finally, we wanted the community to share our enthusiasm and become as excited and as involved with this project as we were." We also wanted participants to know why we were doing this event and to link waste reduction to landfill space. "And, we wanted to reach individuals that did not usually hold garage sales. "We especially wanted to reach new segments of the population that had not been very involved with other waste reduction or recycling practices," says Richard Gurney, Sunnyvale recycling coordinator. "This project is a good way of bringing solid waste and recycling issues right into people's homes with an emphasis on reuse and giving rather than throwing away," says Mark Bowers, city of Sunnyvale solid waste program manager. These efforts are credited with helping Sunnyvale, a community of 130,000 residents, reach a 53 percent diversion rate. Spurred by California's requirement for communities to divert 50 percent of their waste by 2000, the city of Sunnyvale, Calif., decided on a multifaceted waste reduction plan of which the annual yard sale is the public awareness centerpiece. A garage sale can't really help a community reach a 50 percent diversion rate - unless, of course, the garage sale is citywide.
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