BLOOMSBURG, Pa. — It's been a busy few months for the Bloomsburg Public Works Department. As part of the town's Main Street Project, all 750 street lights are being changed to LED.
"The Public Works Department, as they're working on disassembling all of these items, came to me as the recycling coordinator and asked me what to do with the glass. So I looked at the globe and knew I couldn't recycle them with our glass bottle recycling," said Charles Fritz, Bloomsburg's recycling coordinator.
Fritz wants to find a way to reuse the street light shades. They are taking up space at the town's public works building.
"They said we have to move on and get rid of these things as fast as possible, so I said I'll put the word out to the public. We have a lot of ingenious people who can do something new and innovative with these," Fritz said.
The light shades are tempered glass, and there are a lot of them.
"Right now, we have at least 500 taken down, and we have 250 more to take down and disassemble," Fritz said.
Fritz is offering the light shades to the public for free. They can be used for a number of things, like a fruit bowl or a candy dish.
"Use for wedding centerpieces, lots of different options we are putting out there for people. We are happy to see people bring back their ideas and share with us what they've done with them," Fritz said.
Fritz says around 50 of the shades have already been claimed. He's excited to see how they will be used and is even more excited to keep them out of the landfill.
If you are interested in one, you can stop by the Public Works Department or Bloomsburg's Recycling Center Monday through Friday between 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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