Helping Discards Find New Homes

Camp Oink could use some trash cans and bowls. The Ventura YMCA needs computer equipment.

Joseph Gilbert of Ojai has tons of organic pigeon manure to unload. The city of Santa Paula wants to give away 50 boxes of hot tar crack sealant.

These are among the scores of notes in the winter edition of Discards Available and Wanted, published by the Ventura County Materials Exchange Program. The two-page newsletter lists freebies and near-freebies available from local companies, as well as requests for goods from individuals, nonprofit groups and businesses.

And while donors and recipients benefit from the exchange, the real winners are area dumps, which would otherwise become the final resting place for the manure, sealant, paint, foam, tennis ball tubes, fiberglass panels, glass beads, gutters, concrete tailings and plastic buckets that are among the items now available.

To receive the newsletter, and for more information about the program, call 648-9226.