Website encourages recycling

The county of Ventura sponsors the www.VCMAX.org "Donate, Reuse, Recycle" waste reduction website and invites all county residents and businesses to tour the program's virtual reuse warehouse, check out the items listed or place free "Wanted" or "Available" ads.

Everything listed on the website is either free or reasonably priced. For five years, VCMAX, the Ventura County Materials Exchange, was a catalog-based reuse program modeled after the state's CALMAX Materials Exchange program. In 2006 the county ceased publication of the quarterly catalogs to reduce expenses and converted the program to www.VCMAX.org, an Internet-based program dedicated to reuse, recycling, waste diversion and public education.

The website features links to a thrift store directory, a calendar of electronic and hazardous waste collection events, information on appliance recycling and tips to save energy and money.

The "Donate, Reuse, Recycle" program was designed to reduce the disposal into landfills of reusable materials and to help the county meet the 50 percent recycling goal mandated by state Assembly Bill 939.

The VCMAX.org program is provided by the county's Integrated Waste Management Division.

For more information, call Pandee Leachman, at (805) 658-4315.