Zero Waste with The Exchange and Jeff Ludwig

Your garbage gets thrown into a landfill. Totally unhealthy for the earth and all of us, right? Well, the Orcas Island Exchange is trying to reduce the amount of island waste going into landfills under the direction of Jeff Ludwig who runs the operation with dedication and hope that it will work.

The Exchange originally started in the mid-eighties when it was just a lot of tents. For sixteen years, Jeff worked there in the winter while enjoying time on the water as a sea kayak guide during the warmer months. The original Exchange was lost to fire in 2013. When they were rebuilding, the people running it recognized that Jeff had the most experience, so they decided to put him in charge. He loves working there and his favorite part is the people. He manages a team of thirteen people, with six more working on the Transfer Station side.

The original landfill was outside the Exchange, but that got full, so they started shipping waste far from Orcas to Eastern Washington. Waste must leave the island on a truck via ferry boat, then be transported by train from Skagit Valley to Republic. Keeping resources on the island was one of the main reasons the Exchange started. Jeff says, “the role that the Exchange plays on Orcas is to keep the reusable items out of the waste stream”. The organization’s mission is zero-waste, saving as much as they can from being thrown away. Sadly, that doesn’t happen all at once.

“Being on an island is unique, and that makes the zero-waste goal a little trickier which is also part of the reason that the Exchange is successful. Everything comes on a boat or plane to get here, and when somebody wants to get rid of it, it must go on a truck, then a boat and a train.” That’s a lot of transportation for a book or a lamp or anything that can be reused. Jeff thinks that 60 percent of Orcas residents use the Exchange and every day they get someone that hasn’t been there for a while.

Jeff likes when he comes to work everyday with a plan, but it never seems to work out as he anticipated. He has to figure out what’s going to happen in the moment. Residents bring all kinds of stuff to the Exchange, and Jeff’s team sorts and organizes it, but they never really know what’s going to happen on any given day. A challenge in Jeff’s job is figuring out how to handle all of the stuff to ensure a variety, especially in the summer when there’s even more of it.

Clothing and textiles comprise a huge part of the worldwide waste stream so it’s no surprise that the best-selling items at the Exchange are clothes as well as housewares. Clothes are sold by the bag, and given their huge volume, they also ship them on a box truck to the mainland to sell to a nonprofit. Five thousand pounds go off the island every two months. Clothing is one of the most reusable Exchange items because you can wash then wear them.

Jeff’s future plan for the Exchange is to keep doing what they’re doing since it seems to be working well. One of his goals is to create more sheltered outside space to help them handle building materials appropriately by keeping them out of weather. The Exchange is evolving in Jeff’s perspective because “everyday I learn something new”, which is also a big part of “I don’t know what’s going to happen when I come to work”.

Some actions that the community can take to support the Exchange in its zero-waste mission are bringing reusable items and shopping there, especially during busy times such as Black Friday and Christmas. You can learn more about the Exchange, sign up for their newsletter and donate or volunteer to support this important island resource at: www.exchangeorcas.com.

I am glad that Jeff and his team do what they do because Washington State one of the most beautiful states in the U.S.! If it’s filled with dirty, stinky landfills, it probably wouldn’t be very intriguing. So, their zero-waste mission is important not only to us but also to plants and animals! So, thank you Jeff and your team for trying to help Planet Earth, and to you readers, for giving me a chance to work on my writing and interviewing skills by telling you about the Exchange. You can read more of my island interviews at: nikko.mykajabi.com.

Nikko W. Naugle, Creative Genius

This article is also published in our local newspaper, The Sounder. Click here to see it: https://www.islandssounder.com/life/zero-waste-with-the-exchange-and-jeff-ludwig/

Written by Nikko W. Naugle

I write whenever and whatever I can. I hope to one day be a famous author. I write blog articles, and I am a local newspaper contributor (read my Editorial Bio, Zero Waste, and Building Community ) and I write lots of book reviews. I am 9 years old, I love to read, ride bikes, skateboard, swim, and I have lived half my life in Guatemala and half on a small island in the Salish Sea. This is my personal website, and you can find my family’s website at www.yourveganfamily.com.