Creative Uses for Unwanted Materials Minnesota Materials Exchange Catalog cover, Issue 2- 2001   Greg Johnson helped Rainbow Signs donate 117,000 pounds of waste and unwanted materials last year.   Project over-runs become backdrops for high school proms and cable television stations. Foam core odds and ends are built into models by students and architects. Much of the post-press scrap at Rainbow Signs, Inc., in Anoka, becomes supplies for schools and others every Tuesday when the company's recycling dock transforms into a donation center. Creating signs, point-of-purchase displays and visual merchandising kits results in trim waste, printing test run stock and excess customer product samples. Greg Johnson, former Environmental, Health and Safety and Recycling Manager, at Rainbow Signs, started the reuse program in 1995 for items that they can't sell or are difficult to recycle. Initially, Greg sent a mass mailing explaining the company's donation program to local schools, day care centers and nonprofits. Word of mouth has since increased Rainbow's donations from 2,000 pounds of materials in the first year to 117,000 pounds last year. Cathy, a teacher at St. Francis Elementary, said, "We couldn't afford to purchase the kinds of materials we get from Rainbow." In one visit to Rainbow Signs, she and two others from the school loaded up their truck with 500 pounds of school supplies. From among these supplies, foam core would be made into board games and wood samples would be lathed into ginger bread men decorations for the holidays. An art camp instructor for Incarnation Lutheran Church heard about Rainbow Signs' donation program through his uncle, a teacher in Osseo. "I pick up supplies and kids go through them and create things," Kyle said as he loaded up plastic edging, foam core and blue vinyl sheets. "Rainbow doesn't get a tax write off on these donations," said Greg. "But, we are saving four to five cents on every pound of waste we don't have to dispose of." The savings in disposal sold management on the donation program. The program has also helped build Rainbow Sign's good standing in the community. Rainbow received the 2000 Governor's Award for Excellence in Waste and Pollution Prevention from the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance.