Repurpose those signs

With the General Election approaching, more and more signs seem to be popping up.

The signs are all over the place, but I’m not going to complain about the amount of signs there are or the fact that a lot of them are sitting in questionable places.

Nope.

I’d like to explore what happens to all of those corrugated plastic signs and what one can do with them after the election is over. Now, for some politicians, they keep the signs knowing they may seek re-election in two or four years because it’s a way to save money for the next round. However, what about those who are finished with the running for office or have decided politics isn’t what they thought it would be. What to they do with the signs?

As for myself, I have thought of a few ways to repurpose those signs, if you’re an artist you could paint and then reuse them to mark events. Most small signs come with metal posts already.

Two events that could benefit from this that I can think of could be The Green River Pond and Garden Tour or Art on the Green. All they would need to do it paint over the political message and then paint flowers or waterfalls for the tour, while for Art on the Green, artists could recreate Green River’s famous landscapes.

Another way to repurpose signs would be to put them together and make them into a dog house for your pet. Even if it only lasted a few years, you’d have other signs left to make another one. Once again they would be repainted and no one would even know.

One could also use the same concept and make a playhouse for your kids that they could paint whatever color they wanted.

You could even make your own storage bins, which you could then paint whatever color you wanted.

Even if I think my ideas are pretty creative, they are nothing compared to what I found when I searched the internet for stories related to this concept.

According to a news report published Feb. 11, 2016, by the Associated Press, a University of New Hampshire professor collects discarded plastic campaign signs for use in her occupational therapy classes. Her students use the signs to create dozens of assisted items for people with disabilities. Some of the items created were cell phone and iPad holders. They are up to 78 items they can make to help out those with disabilities. Plus, the signs are easy to clean and they last forever.

According to an ABC 15 report, a man in Buckeye, Ariz., is using old campaign signs to make floats. Drywall screws, washers and plastic zip ties are used to hold the float together. In the past the group had created trains for the lighted parade, but they also made a big boot once to go with the book “The old Woman who Lived in a Shoe.”

These are all great ideas. So after the election is over, I am encouraging those who have purchased all of these signs to think about a way to repurpose them instead of just throwing them away.