Each April, central Ohioans join with the nation to participate in Earth Month by taking local action to protect our shared natural environment. This year, SWACO is enhancing central Ohio’s efforts with the introduction of Choose to Reuse, a new initiative which prioritizes waste reduction and reuse activities that families and residents can do to reduce their reliance on the landfill and their environmental impact.
Annually, central Ohioans create more than 2 million tons of waste and send twice as much material to the landfill than is reused, recycled or composted. Most (76%) of all landfilled materials in Franklin County could have been diverted.
Choose to Reuse utilizes a holistic approach to reduce what’s sent to the landfill by focusing on education and outreach, the formation of strategic partnerships and making targeted investments which increase opportunities for residents to prevent waste or engage in reuse activities.
“Recycling is great, especially when you commit to recycling right, but in keeping with what most of us learned in grade school, reduction and reuse offer even greater opportunities to rethink our individual behavior and environmental impact,” shared Joe Lombardi, SWACO’s executive director.
When it comes to education and outreach, Choose to Reuse includes a new educational web page which provides waste cutting ideas and inspiration for a wide array of activities such as advice for shopping secondhand at thrift stores, garage sales, local Facebook neighborhood groups and donation centers, identifies opportunities to rent or borrow books, tools, and equipment, details ways to avoid single-use items and shares simple tips for performing day-to-day activities in low waste ways.
The web page also includes a list of area events and activities open to the public such as Repair Cafes, which are free events to which residents can bring broken items to obtain assistance from experts with mending and repairing clothing, furniture, appliances, bicycles, toys and more, delaying their arrival at the Franklin County Sanitary Landfill.
In 2025, SWACO initiated new partnerships with Goodwill Columbus, Leveling the Playing Field and The Worthington Partnership, investing more than $90,000 to help support:
- Do Good, a donation program with Goodwill Columbus which incentives the donation of goods as well as shopping secondhand as a way to keep more items from the landfill.
- The purchase of a van for Leveling the Playing Field to collect more donated sports equipment and further expand access and equity to sports and recreation programs in under-resourced communities.
- A borrow-based reusable coffee cup pilot program at three (3) Worthington coffee shops as well as an initiative to reduce single-use food and beverage containers at the Worthington Farmers Market; an initiative being led by The Worthington Partnership.
Finally, SWACO is sponsoring the Furniture Bank of Central Ohio’s 3rd Annual Furniture Bank Day to keep more gently used furniture and home goods out of the landfill by making donation of these items easier.
SWACO plans to invest an additional $20,000 in community-led reuse activities before the end of the year.
“SWACO is committed to becoming more sustainable and equitable by rethinking waste management and as we continue to provide valuable resources and programs to educate the community, we look forward to more of these new partnerships which are helping to emphasize the importance of reduction and reuse in addition to recycling,” said Director Lombardi.
Stay up to date with Choose to Reuse resources, events and partnership at www.swaco.org/Choose2Reuse
