There is a saying about one man's trash being another man's treasure.
Some people take that saying to heart - through a 2 1/2-week-old program called Please Take materials exchange, where you can find everything from construction paper and crushed-velvet paintings to rubber-ducky lamps and classy watercolors.
Just think, the broken chair with the gray duct tape you think deserves to be burned is actually someone else's artistic fantasy. Only in America.
The program is a joint effort of the Creative Artists' Reuse Project (CARP) and the Dumpster Divers, a group of artists who dig through trash and, yes, dive into Dumpsters.
According to cdavid cottrill, CARP's founder and a Dumpster Diver, the organization's mission is to create a place where artists can find what they need in one spot, rather than searching high and low for materials that may be hard to come by.
"We ride the line between a thrift store and a raw materials shop," said cottrill, 31, who pronounces his first name see-david. "Except here, the more you bring in, the more you can take out."
The program is located in the basement of the Wolf Building at 12th and Callowhill Streets. Its shelves are filled with items as simple as buttons and as complex as an EKG heart-monitor machine. Not at all selective about where he dives for trash, Please Take member Neil Benson, 45, has become an expert in digging for the practical.
"We got those from the Art Museum," he said, pointing to boxes of new 90-watt halogen lightbulbs. "Apparently the Philadelphia Museum of Art no longer needs light."
Please Take charges a membership fee of $40 for six months and $80 for one year. After that, members receive a $50 credit. They can take anything out of the store adding up to that amount and pay the rest in cash.
Although Please Take was started with the starving artist in mind, it is open to the artistically challenged. Anyone can join, though cottrill notes that artists or collectors will reap the most benefits.
"It really doesn't pay unless you are going to exchange," the artist and sculptor said.
When a member brings something in, it is assigned a dollar value that is added to the member's credit.
All account activity is logged on an outdated computer that, of course, was found in someone's trash.
But it works. So do the printer, the ink and the monitor Benson found. The 80 boxes of paper Bell Atlantic threw away when it moved to new office space will provide years' worth for Benson and the Ninth Police District, which sent a van to pick up almost 30 boxes. Janet Dormant's fifth-grade class at St. Malachy School on 11th Street north of Girard reaped the benefits of oversized drawing paper the phone company also saw no need for.
"This country throws out too much too soon," said Benson, a former freelance news photographer, now a full-time artist.
Merchandise at Please Take, not to be confused with the Please Touch Museum for children, is sold or exchanged for as little as a few pennies to $50 for a beehive hair-dryer. The Magnavox CD SoundMachine sells for $5. A 10-speed bike in fairly good condition is ready to go for 10 bucks.
But the car search lamps are probably the steal of the store. One dollar for a lamp with a bulb, 50 cents without.
Although a lot of items have already been exchanged or donated, some materials are left over from the grand opening auction on June 10. Cottrill and Benson estimate that more than 200 people filled the compact Please Take area in the basement. Illuminated mainly by Christmas tree and backyard party lights, along with neon signs, Please Take is just the thing most trash is not - cozy.
Benson loves the thrill of scavenging through a Dumpster, but he is adamant that people understand the difference between garbage and trash. "Garbage is food or anything that can decompose," he said. "Trash is stuff like metal, wood and plastic, things that will not decompose.
"We're not into garbage, but deep into trash."
Please Take members are free to come and go as they please. "They know how to get in on their own and have complete access," said cottrill, who is also the program's director. "We operate on a type of honor system. It's trash. If it disappears, we can replace it tomorrow."
Cottrill's program is modeled after Materials for the Arts in New York, a partnership between the city Department of Cultural Affairs and the Department of Sanitation's Bureau of Waste Prevention, Reuse and Recycling.
Unlike Please Take, the New York program is open only to nonprofit cultural, social service or community organizations and individual artists working with certain cultural organizations.
Although Please Take is not going to strip the streets of trash, Diane Dalto, city representative for arts and culture, said she admires what it is trying to do.
"There's a lot more trash on the street that can be used by artists, but this sets a great example," she said. "It makes people think about how they can reuse items rather than throw them away."
Dalto said she would do what she can to help Please Take. She also likes the idea of working with other city departments.
"I think it is a good idea to look at the New York program with the sanitation department," she said. "I think it would be good for our sanitation department to get involved in something creative like this."
Cottrill said that once the business is up and running he will look to the city for help. "I want to gain information about other city agencies that we can collaborate with," he said.
Materials that Please Take can use include computer, lab, sound and photo equipment; musical instruments; ceramic tile (cracked, broken or intact); paper; hand tools; extension cords; mirrors; electric fans; bolts of fabric; and raw materials such as wire and wood. Please Take is nonprofit, so all contributions are tax-deductible.
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