What to do with Packaging Material in Beacon?

So it's official - the Mail & Ship Plus that was on Main Street is gone, after 10 years of operation. To some, it's a big deal. Having a local, independently owned shipping place was wonderful - convenient, fast, easy to work with. The alternative is driving out of town to a corporate chain for your shipping needs. For me, who doesn't often ship packages or need to fax, it was all about the packaging materials they accepted for reuse. I'd walk around the corner from the bike shop, styrofoam sheeting & bubble wrap in hand, and leave it all there for them to use in future packing. It felt great to reuse the material, and to help this small shop save money on material for shipping. But now, they've left Beacon and there is no other place to bring the material.

I called Sharon at the Express Depot in Fishkill to see how she was doing. After 15+ years in business, and only a few accepting material back for reuse, she's overwhelmed with material and cannot take much more. If you live in Fishkill, she may take the following: styrofoam peanuts (not the corn starch variety, which biodegrades and is unusable for multiple uses), styrofoam sheeting (not pre-formed blocks that are made to suit the original shipment) and bubble wrap if it's clean and relatively tape-free. They're located at 37 Elm St # 5 in Fishkill. (845) 896-4225. If you know of any other place in the area (Beacon/Wappingers/Fishkill) please comment!  She told me a wonderful story about walking from house to house with her little red wagon as a kid in the 50's, picking up newspapers to be brought to the paper recycling depot to be recycled & reused. She thinks that the mindset is finally shifting back to the way it was, when folks recycled because it saved money and was the right thing to do. And in a way, I'm really happy for her because she has an overload of customers who see value in reusing the materials. If she had more room, she could have enough for many businesses to use!

We really need more resources for this kind of material, and many other kinds as well. I picked up a great table from the transfer station yesterday (thank you to John, Royal and Buddy for helping me pack in my Fit!)   It's going to be awesome on our back deck! There was a beautiful kid's dresser in there too, with no damage. And of course, I grabbed a huge sheet of styrofoam to be brought to my beloved Mail & Ship, only to have it gone. In my vision, I imagine a place for these things to go, free-for-all style, along with other stuff that can be reused.

My Fit became a pickup truck!

I ask my audience: what would it take to create a healthy, self-sustaining place for materials to be brought & reused? Do we need a little depot in each town? Do we need a large materials exchange warehouse in Dutchess County? What do you want to see?