The prospect of retirement doesn’t just signal the end of a career; it offers the chance to recalibrate and re-prioritize in life.
The Pi Table: Dumpster Diving
January 1, 2009
The first step in the Scrapile process is to acquire raw materials. Salgado and Bettencourt are beggars, not choosers: Any wood—from cherry to walnut—will do. With help from a local nonprofit, NY Wa$teMatch, they’ve found a number of mills, lumberyards, and other businesses happy to offload their detritus. It helps that Scrapile’s studio—–a 5,000-square-foot space they share with Bart’s other business, Bettencourt Green Building Supplies—is in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood, home to considerable light industry. “We’re literally surrounded by hundreds of woodworking shops,” says Salgado. “It’s a cost-benefit for them: They don’t have to fill up their dumpsters as much.” Over the course of a year, that can add up to a substantial savings for the donor, and a windfall in free material for Scrapile, to say nothing of the environmental benefit. Everyone wins.
Scrapile doesn’t discriminate against any wood, but they are meticulous in arranging the pieces into single sheets.
Salgado at the power saw.
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