Volunteer Group Opens a Home Supply Store for Recycled Materials

Lynn Schenkman

Astoria, N.Y. – Astoria Residents Reclaiming Our World (ARROW), an environmental volunteer organization, will open a building reuse center in Queens on March 7. The Building Materials Reuse and Education Center will offer discounted building materials, such as fixtures, shelving, kitchen cabinets, sinks, doors and lock sets. The inventory will come from donations ARROW solicits with the pitch: "Purge your IKEA guilt!" All items donated would otherwise have been left on curbs and headed to landfills. Funding for the center came from Waste Free NYC, a waste-prevention program managed by INFORM, a New York-based research organization, and funded by the city council through the Department of Sanitation of New York City.