SEQUIM — With half of this couple laid off and the other half working part-time, it felt right to try a whole new line of work — about which this husband and wife have long shared a passion.
So it is that Around Again, a nonprofit used furniture and building materials store, has opened at 765 W. Washington St. in Sequim.
When a new customer walks in the door, Gavin and Sally Wuttken describe their simple mission: “to keep stuff out of the landfill.”
Look around Around Again, though, and much of the merchandise looks decidedly unfit for dumping.
There are dining tables, an elegant wardrobe with a full-length mirror and a row of used doors ready to be hung — or converted into countertops or headboards.
Around Again is about reusing furnishings, fixtures, materials and even paint, “as long as it still moves,” Gavin tells the steady stream of people who come to see his new store.
Along with old cans of paint, he and Sally take in all manner of furnishings and home-improvement supplies, and then price them to move.
That wardrobe, for example, wore a $20 price tag.
Diving safety officer
Gavin, who previously worked at Waste Not Want Not, the used-materials store with locations in Port Angeles and Port Townsend, now works as a diving safety officer two days a week at the Point Defiance Aquarium in Tacoma.
He manages the volunteer and staff divers who maintain the aquarium’s exhibits, and then drives back to Sequim to join Sally at Around Again for the rest of the work week.
Both Gavin and Sally used to work at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, where they learned about the oceans of garbage that are polluting the planet.
On a trip to the Olympic Peninsula about eight years ago, they fell in love with the region. In 2004, they moved to Port Angeles and built the geodesic dome in which they now live.
Sally later found work as an administrative assistant at Sequim’s Special Needs Advocacy Parents program for developmentally disabled adults. The program is still running, but Sally was laid off earlier this year.
“We’re not getting any younger,” Sally said, so she and Gavin decided to move forward on an idea they’ve incubated for the 20 years they’ve been married.
They rented the former Curves building, vacated when the women’s health club closed last spring, remodeled it, scraped the paint off the windows so passers-by could see inside and fenced in the side yard for outdoor displays.
Around Again isn’t about generating profit, the Wuttkens said; it is about raising awareness of the waste engulfing this county and others.
Tons of stuff
Gavin tells shoppers about the tens of thousands of tons — yes, tons — of castoff stuff trucked from the Port Angeles transfer station to the Finley Buttes Landfill near Boardman, Ore., each year.
More than 47,400 tons of garbage were sent south last year, according to Port Angeles city waste reduction specialist Helen Freilich.
But in the first nine months of this year, trash loads have dipped about 12 percent from the same period in 2008.
“Not just here but nationwide, garbage has gone down,” Freilich said, largely because of the construction-industry slump.
At the same time, businesses and homeowners are buying less stuff and keeping old things longer.
The recession, then, has made a slight dent in the mountains of trash — but the problem is still enormous.
So far this year, Freilich said, Port Angeles and environs have generated 32,630 tons, as in 65,260,000 pounds, of garbage.
Resource center
The Wuttkens, meanwhile, want to show Sequim-area residents the joys of repurposing.
They plan to make Around Again a resource center where people can learn how to retrofit bathroom fixtures, build rain-catchment devices, hang a door and plant a native garden, all in the name of taking better care of their homes and the Earth.
A retrofit low-flow toilet, for example, can save a family of four 30,000 gallons of water per year, Sally said.
Around Again, open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, is piquing the curiosity of people who drive by.
“They ask, ‘Are you kidding?'” when they see the price tags, said Sally.
“Obviously, we’re not going to get rich,” she said, adding the nonprofit organization she and Gavin formed does not pay her a salary.
“We’ve gotten lots of great support,” though, from shoppers and donors.
Around Again offers construction job-site pickup of building materials and furnishings that would otherwise be thrown away, Gavin added.
He also encourages homeowners whose garages are packed full of projects — the kind they’re unlikely to ever get around to — to consider phoning Around Again at 360-683-7862.
The store accepts just about everything, from windows, tubs, tools and tile to sliding doors, patio furniture, roofing supplies, cabinets, plumbing, flooring, appliances, trim and the kitchen sink as well as other kinds of basins.
Donations must be in good shape, Gavin noted.
“We cannot accept anything until we actually see it,” he said.
Bowling alley items
At the front of Around Again is one example of repurposing: maple pin-setup pieces from the Laurel Lanes bowling alley in Port Angeles, turned into a wide countertop.
A nearby sign invites shoppers back: “Our inventory is growing and always changing. What may not be here today may well be here tomorrow.”
Also on the horizon is a Web site, on which shoppers will be able to browse through the store’s inventory and put in requests for particular items.
“We’ll e-mail you when it comes in,” Gavin promised.
The site, www.AroundAgainStore.org, is still under construction, as the Wuttkens welcome people to their actual shop.
Now and then, a shopper turns out to be a supplier.
“What else do you want?” asked a man after looking at the store full of furnishings last Friday. “I’ve got three storage units full.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com