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"Up-Cycle" Store at Montezuma County Landfill Opens Monday

Gail Binkly
/
KSJD

A new store is opening in Montezuma County at an unlikely location – the landfill.

Current inventory at the “upcycle” store includes two pianos, a washing machine and lawn mower, and a set of 17-inch chrome Nissan wheels, plus many smaller items. Landfill manager Shak Powers says he had to obtain a state permit and a sales-tax license before opening the shop, which starts business Monday. All the goods are rescued from the landfill by sharp-eyed employees. Powers says the point isn’t making money, just keeping serviceable items out of the waste stream.

“We talk about reduce, reuse and recycle, and before we get to the recycling we should definitely look at the reuse of some of these materials,” he says.

Click below to hear a full interview with Shak Powers.

shak_powers_upcycle_interview_final_for_web.mp3
Interview with Shak Powers

And a web exclusive: listen to a piano that made it into the store:

shak_powers_interview_piano_outtake.mp3
Up-Cycle Store Piano

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Gail Binkly is a career journalist who has worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette and Cortez Journal, and was the editor of the Four Corners Free Press, based in Cortez.
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