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Community Corner

Summit Hosts Free Market

Recycling event promotes going green with free items.

Summit students will teach the community how to “freecycle” at the Summit Transfer Station on November 7 and 14.  The event is called the Summit Free Market, where residents trade reusable items they no longer want for something more appealing. 

Summit residents can drive to the Transfer Station, and student volunteers will help unload items.  Then residents can feel free to look around and take items from under the big tent, enjoying total anonymity and reaping the benefits of recycling.

This project was put together by a committee comprised of students from local high schools and middle schools, as well as adult mentors.  The five leading student members also belong to other sustainability groups.

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“The city of Summit has pushed for inter-generational committees,” said Amy Harrison, Coordinating Adult Mentor of the Summit Free Market Committee.  “Young people bring energy, enthusiasm, fresh ways of thinking and creativity.”

The students run everything from the organization and marketing of this program to moving objects on the day of the Free Market.  Adult mentors oversee and provide training, said Harrison.  The Summit Free Market Committee has its own Web site and location thanks to funding from the Geraldine R. Dodge foundation. 

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Other events held by the Summit Free Market Committee have kept more than five tons of reusable items from landfills.  This official Free Market is being run in response to the popularity of these past events.

“The Summit Free Market’s goals include, but are not limited to: fostering environmentally friendly practices among the community, providing a socially engaging, yet proactive activity for a varying social community and finally educating the public about the importance of reusing viable products,” said Sonja Podesta, chairperson of the committee.

This entire event works hand-in-hand with Mayor Jordan Glatt’s plan to make Summit more sustainable.  The “Sustainability Initiative” is to reach out, talk to residents and businesses and come up with sustainability action plans.

Harrison defines sustainability as “meeting the needs of the current generation while protecting resources for future generations.”  Citizens take only what they need and keep track of natural resources.

“This event really fits the city of Summit because of (the citizens’) passion for sustainability and the Summit Free Market is really a great shift from throw-away to give-away,” said Harrison.  “We’re raising a generation of green leaders.”

The organization’s Web site, Summitfreemarket.org, will launch on November 21.  For a list of items not allowed at the exchange or for further information please visit www.cityofsummit.org or call the Department of Community Services at 908-273-6404.

 

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