Wood Scraps Donation Program
Wood You Recycle? The City Donates Wood Waste.
Scrap wood that's generated at City carpentry shops no longer ends up in the landfill. It now goes to wood shop classes at six Los Angeles junior and senior high schools. Because of tight budgets, the schools don't have much money to purchase supplies for student woodworking projects. But now over 60 tons of wood each year will head for Nightingale, Stevenson and Virgil middle schools, and Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Wilson high schools, to be turned into toys, plaques and other decorative pieces.

Used Greeting Cards Donation Program
Greeting Cards Get Reused! Just small pieces of paper - but they travel across town or around the globe to convey the sweetest of sentiments: miss you, love you, be my valentine, hope you feel better, congratulations, Happy Mother's Day, Father's Day, Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas.

Yet even the nicest of sentiments in the nicest of greeting cards eventually end up in the wastebasket and then the landfill, a reflection of our disposable lifestyle. But now your OLD cards can keep on sending your very best - to a very special group of kids.

The St. Jude's Ranch for Children in Nevada cares for abused, neglected and troubled children from across the U.S. by offering individualized counseling and treatment. To help raise money for these programs, St. Judes' kids use the fronts of old greeting cards to make new cards, which are sold.

To help cut down on the City's waste, and to find creative ways to reuse old goods, the City Facilities Recycling Program (CFRP) and the Integrated Solid Waste Management Office (ISWMO) launched a collection program for old greeting cards in December, 1993. Collection boxes were placed throughout City facilities and employees could also turn in their old cards via interoffice mail. Annually, an estimated 22,000 used greeting cards are sent to St. Jude's Ranch by City of Los Angeles employees.

Send your very best on every holiday -- to the kids of St. Jude's. For information, please call Recycline at (213) 922-8300.

Used Eyeglasses Donation Program
Take a new look at your old eyeglasses. They may be out of date and out of fashion. But to the poor and needy in less developed countries, where nearly a fourth of the population suffers from impaired vision, your old glasses are the only way to clear vision. A 1994 City collection drive, sponsored with Direct Relief International's SOS (Share Old Spectacles) and Kiwanis Clubs; the Doheny Eye Clinic with the Lion's Club Eye Foundation of Southern California (Specs Appeal); and Family Health Plan Clinic/Hospitals, netted 145 pairs. Each pair of donated glasses was computer-scanned to determine its prescription, then shipped worldwide to health facilities. The 1995 collection drive was sponsored by Vision/Habitat, a small program of Habitat for Humanity International.

Share your company's vision, too!

City employees can donate used eyeglasses (both prescription and regular) by wrapping them in soft paper, placing them inside an envelope and send them to: