NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — For the first time, Nashville is hoping to recycle and reuse hundreds of campaign signs left over from the metro's general and runoff elections.
On Saturday, a pile of signs sat dismantled on the first floor of the Richard Fulton Campus' parking garage.
"There's about 1,000 signs that we've collected," Jennifer Westerholm said. She works as the Sustainability & Outreach Manager in the Metro Department of General Services.
"Unlike in years past where these signs have just been thrown away and end up in the landfill, this year we decided to do something about it," Westerholm said, while surrounded by pieces of the signs. She said metro leaders will sell the metal pieces of the signs as scrap metal. As for the signs themselves?
"Those will be taken to a local non-profit called Turnip Green Creative Reuse," Westerholm said.
"We focus on sustainability and taking in materials and re-purposing them in a creative manner out into the public," Turnip Green's Anya Hudyncia said. Those materials are sold in a pay-what-you-can style shop in Nashville. The campaign signs will join hundreds of other things, from fabric to flashlights, on the shelves at the store.
"You can pretty much do anything with [the signs] that you can do with paper, just with tougher scissors," Hudyncia said with a laugh. "I'm excited to see the projects that people can do with them!"
But more importantly, she said, it keeps the signs out of the city landfills. It's a move that can save space, and help the environment.
"Any type of reuse, especially things that are only used for a temporary time, helps," Hudyncia said.
