What does USA Today and Craigslist Have in Common?

One irritating aspect of being a newspaper vendor is storing or handling the returns/overstock. Fortunately with USA Today we only have to keep papers for about a week. USA Today will message all vendors around Wednesday and let us know which day will be audited. Then, every day but the audited day can be disposed of. Actually, after clipping the header, even the audited day can be disposed of.

At first I started loading them in my car after audit and taking them to the animal shelter in Gulfport. THEN, I hurt my leg and was in considerable pain. The thought of loading and unloading that I did not absolutely HAVE to do was unbearable.

I impulsively placed an ad in Craigslist Community/Volunteer section--to the attention of Recyclers/Re-users. Since that day I have met some of the nicest people I would not have met otherwise. People who are committed to shelters maintaining fresh litter, or otherwise re-using the papers. 

I now have "regulars" to call when the audit is done and the papers are ready for their second life. 

If I did not have others to depend on--I would likely continue doing it myself. But, as long as I have volunteers--I have to admit that I am pretty tired of dealing with papers by the time after audit pick-up rolls around. God Bless the new re-cyclers/re-users who are helping out.