In the past, the only thing you could do with polystyrene (styrofoam) take-out food containers, packing material, etc., was to just toss it in the garbage. Thanks to Oneonta's Otsego ReUse Center, a program of the ARC Otsego, you can just bring it to the Oneonta transfer station or the Otsego ReUse Center and it will be recycled and repurposed.

The Otsego ReUse Center began recycling polystyrene back in 2019 after acquiring a special machine that presses the foam material into dense cubes. According to the Otsego ReUse Center, they have collected as much as 9 tons of the material to be recycled which is very impressive! Check out the video below of staff using the densifier machine that presses the polystyrene into bricks...

The center also keeps all kinds of great, gently used items out of the trash, things that people just don't want anymore. I took a recent trip to the ReUse Center on Dwayne St. (off of River St.) in Oneonta and honestly, there's almost nothing they DON'T have.

TSM Oneonta
TSM Oneonta
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Bill Hardy, the center's manager, told me that with the ReUse Center open 7 days a week, every day, new items are coming in. With inventory always changing, it's not easy to keep up with making sure everything is organized but between staff and volunteers, they all do a great job and you won't believe the treasures you can find there.

The best part is that this program is a great way for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities, those served by the ARC Otsego, to find meaningful and enjoyable jobs at the center to do. Add to that, the wonderful benefit of keeping tons and tons of usable items out of the landfill and you have a major win-win.

Because this program has been such a success since its inception, the Otsego ReUse Center has expanded its space with the addition of the former Moose Lodge building, which is right around the corner from the center. The new building will house all of the home building materials that will be for sale, while the original buildings will showcase home goods, furniture, and many other items.

The ReUse Center needs volunteers who can help in any way with the moving of materials into the new building. They could also use volunteers who would like to help in other ways at the center. If you are interested in volunteering, you can contact Bill Hardy by email at hardyw@arcotsego.org or send a message through the Otsego ReUse Center Facebook page.

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Many of the included towns jump out at the casual observer as popular summer-rental spots--the Ozarks' Branson, Missouri, or Arizona's Lake Havasu--it might surprise you to dive deeper into some quality-of-life offerings beyond the beach and vacation homes. You'll likely pick up some knowledge from a wide range of Americana: one of the last remaining 1950s-style drive-ins in the Midwest; a Florida town that started as a Civil War veteran retirement area; an island boasting some of the country's top public schools and wealth-earners right in the middle of a lake between Seattle and Bellevue; and even a California town containing much more than Johnny Cash's prison blues.

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To determine the most popular national parks in the United States, Stacker compiled data from the National Park Service on the number of recreational visits each site had in 2020. Keep reading to discover the 50 most popular national parks in the United States, in reverse order from #50 to #1. And be sure to check with individuals parks before you visit to find out about ongoing, pandemic-related safety precautions at www.nps.gov/coronavirus.

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