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Habitat for Humanity will push 'neo-repurpose' movement Habitat for Humanity's Ron McKinley helps Mark Solomon unload a piece of furniture Friday afternoon at the ReStore on South Pacific Highway in Medford. [Mail Tribune / Andy Atkinson] Monday Dec 18, 2017 at 12:01 AM Dec 18, 2017 at 11:45 AM Mark Freeman Mail Tribune @MTwriterFreeman The Rogue Valley's Habitat for Humanity ReStore will become a new hub for the growing national movement of improving the environment by extending the life of gadgets, gizmos and other materials in local circulation. The nonprofit plans to hire a full-time "waste manager" who will institute repair programs and even coordinate public workshops aimed at getting people to fix and reuse damaged items so they don't end up in landfills. It's not about reducing the amount of stuff that ends up in dumps. Rather, it's designed to reduce the air pollution, minerals extraction and other environmental impacts associated with manufacturing new items by keeping current items in circulation longer and recycling their parts once they've truly run their course. While a common notion is that materials create their greatest environmental costs when they are discarded, this growing national movement acknowledges "a life-cycle view of materials"  and their environmental impacts, said Craig Filip, a solid-waste reductions analyst for the state Department of Environmental Quality. "Every step of the life cycle, everything has environmental impacts," Filip said. "If it already exists and you can repair it, you avoid all the environmental impacts of creating something new. "The more we can reduce these impacts, the greater the benefits," Filip said. "You can't recycle everything." Rogue Valley Habitat for Humanity last week was awarded a $45,000 DEQ Materials Management Program grant to fund the position as a one-year pilot project with the hope that it can pay for itself through a combination of increased revenues and decreased costs. The grant was among $600,000 awarded recently by DEQ, and the money comes from "tipping fees," which are collected on solid waste dumped at landfills, said Steve Siegel, a DEQ senior policy analyst. The grant program, which dates to 1992, was suspended amid DEQ budget cuts in 2009 but was revived by the 2015 Oregon Legislature, Siegel said. The nonprofit hopes to fill the position early next year after first shoring up the job description, said Denise James, the nonprofit's executive director. The neo-repurpose movement traces itself to a group of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo students frustrated in the early 2000s when they couldn't get their computers fixed. In 2003, they formed a private company that sells repair parts and offers free repair manuals through the website ifixit.com. It surfaced recently as Habitat for Humanity struggled with trying to get more of its donated items resold through its ReStore thrift store on South Pacific Highway and reduce its dumping costs that hit as much as $4,000 a month, James said. "It's something we really need at the store," James said. The nonprofit occasionally held events for students and others to turn store items into pieces of art. "Our customers come in with different ideas for repurposing," James said. The waste manager will also develop a "robust" recycling program and work at the store to track donations, improve resale rates and look for ways to recycle more of what's not sold there, Filip said. It could also include training for those taking donations at the thrift store to better determine resalable items and train a keener eye on hazardous waste and other items concealed in donated materials, Filip said. "People treat thrifts like another dumpsite," Filip said. — Reach Mail Tribune reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MTwriterFreeman.