"This plastic is not recyclable": Local groups have new ideas to repurpose leftover political campaign signs
SACRAMENTO — There's some new ideas on what to do with all those signs left over from political campaigns.
California law says they must be taken down ten days after Election Day. Now, some local groups are trying to collect them and give them another purpose.
It can seem like they're everywhere, but political signs instantly became obsolete once the polls closed Tuesday.
"They are made out of corrugated plastic," said Shira Lane, the executive director of Atrium 916. "This plastic is not recyclable."
Most of the time, they're just tossed in the trash.
"Imagine all over the United States how many there really are," Lane said.
Only now, the Sacramento Habitat For Humanity's ReStore is working with other non-profits to collect them and give them a new purpose.
"To redistribute them to schools, to art communities, to turn them into something beautiful," said Shannin Stein with Habitat For Humanity.
"We're trying to collect them, intervene before they hit the landfill and try to upcycle them into creative ways," Lane said.
So how can campaign signs be reused?
"We have a lot of artists that come out and say, "I've got this idea that I want to try,' " Lane said. "Engineering teachers like to use it because then they can build structures with it."
Others have been turned in to decorations like snowflakes or a birdhouse and one person even used them to build a shelter for someone who is homeless.
"We're really excited to see what the artists and what the community members create," Stein said.
Habitat For Humanity is holding a collection event Saturday at their warehouse on North 10th Street in Sacramento, and anyone interested in reusing the signs can pick them up for free.