Turning Wood Waste into Window Art

Replacing the windows in your home with Mr. Rogers' energy efficient windows is a great way to reduce the cost of heating and cooling your home. And now Mr. Rogers is introducing a way you can support the arts as well as help in the global effort to conserve our limited, natural resources!

Beginning in November, and in collaboration with your local high schools, Mr. Rogers' Window Art Project will provide an outlet for recycling the old style, rope and pulley windows into decorative art while promoting environmental awareness and activism within our public school system.

In its efforts for environmental conservation, Mr. Rogers Windows already recycles the aluminum from old aluminum windows, and donates the proceeds to many charitable organizations through the Mr. Rogers Windows Foundation.

But what about old wood windows? If your windows are the weighted rope and pulley style, replacing them only makes the old ones disappear from your home, but they still need to go somewhere. Mr. Rogers gives the weights from them to local fisherman to use. But you might be surprised to learn that wood waste can be pretty harmful to the environment. In fact, it is estimated that over 2 tons of waste goes into our landfills each year as a result of non-recyclable wooden windows.

Old windows and debris from remodeling projects usually end up in landfills, but full ones are being closed all the time. So the waste is sent on to a transfer station where it is unloaded, and then reloaded onto a bigger truck, only to be hauled to another landfill farther away. The process wastes our limited resources — time, money, fuel and land — not to mention the pollution created.

You see, the wood used on old windows was chemically treated to last, preventing it from decomposing naturally. Once in the dump, these chemicals leech out and pollute our air, water, and soil.

Not anymore. Now, Mr. Rogers has found a way to reuse old wooden windows too.

Art Project is Mr. Rogers' Step Towards a Solution

Window Art Project provides homeowners like you an opportunity to replace your windows without contributing significantly to our growing environmental concerns.

Instead of taking your old wood windows to a landfill, Mr. Rogers will organize and facilitate the distribution of them for use in local public high schools. There painting, drawing, and photography teachers will create semester-long student projects within the qualifying curriculum set by each district. The art projects will promote education about energy conservation, waste management, and encourage an understanding about the needs for creative environmental solutions.

At the end of the semester, teachers will select a few works from their classes to be displayed in a public art exhibit for the community. To help encourage artistic creativity, continuing art education, and progressive environmental thinking, the artwork will be judged, and winners will be awarded scholarships and prizes sponsored by local businesses.

An Invitation To Be Part of the Solution

If you're thinking about replacing your old wooden windows, consider more than just the immediate energy savings you'll realize with Mr. Rogers Windows. You can help reduce landfill waste and support the arts in your community at the same time.

By donating your old windows through Mr. Rogers, you're supporting future artisans of the world with visual arts programs created to promote and enhance environmental activism.

Mr. Rogers Windows is always looking for ways to reduce, reuse and recycle. So make sure your replacement window project is part of the environmental solution, and keep your eyes open for the Window Art Project near you!

You might just see a familiar frame winning the prize!

Window Art image provided by Sandra Montgomery's Old Window Art in Tucson, AZ