St. Thomas CFO Mark Vangsgard enjoys the view (and the cost) from a repurposed pallet. Liz Chambers and others provided the labor.
St. Thomas students working in the stewardship garden this summer employed the concept of “upcycling” by turning old wooden pallets into “new” garden furniture.
Upcycling, a term coined in the 1990s, means turning waste materials or materials with little value into useful products.
Prior to this week, the only place to sit at the garden, which is near the corner of Mississippi River Boulevard and Goodrich, was on the ground or on two pieces of reclaimed plastic lawn furniture. I suggested to the students, including Liz, Hunter, Tyler and Leann, that we could do better.
By mid-week the students and I had finished three chairs made from wood pried from four pallets that were going nowhere except the landfill. We modified a chair design found on the internet; cost was about a half-pound of wood screws, a few sheets of sandpaper and the labor. Students also learned some beginning carpentry.
An important consideration in making the chairs was the stamp “HT” on the pallets, which means “heat treated.” Some pallets are stamped “MB” for methyl bromide, a chemical used as a sterilant (and a pesticide) that we wanted to avoid.
A coat of boiled linseed oil is in the works for the finished products, which will include a bench. The plastic furniture made its way to Goodwill.
Leann and Liz sand the pallet boards before assembling the chairs.
Liz Chambers uses a spindle sander to take the rough edges off an upcycled board.
Leann and Liz enjoy the “new” garden furniture.
