The zero dollar store: Eugene junk hauler hopes to grow giveaways into nonprofit

If it didn’t end up in Ward Ricker’s storage unit, it would have just been junk. Instead, he’s hauling away the things others don’t want and giving it away to people who do.

Much of it isn’t good enough to donate to thrift stores. But Ricker sees finding a home — other than the dump — for the furniture, household items and all the odds and ends he gathers as a way to reduce overall waste. He’s hoping giving away stuff catches on.

Ricker is trying to start a free store, where everything costs shoppers exactly nothing.

Just about every Sunday since April, Ricker has been opening a storage unit in Eugeneto anyone who wants some free stuff. Ricker’s main objective is to intercept items otherwise bound for the landfill by giving it all away to people who want and need them.

“I’m concerned about waste issues,” Ricker said. “We’re using up all our resources, wasting them so future generations won’t have them. We’re putting all our waste in these horrible, toxic piles we call landfills, and it’s just not right. We shouldn’t be doing that to our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It’s just wrong.”

Ricker stocks his free stuff storage locker with the things he’s hauled away since he started a junk removal business last December, a venture he said began as a way to learn more about waste. By April, he was giving the items he hauls away for free and hoping to spark the development of a nonprofit organization dedicated to cost-free shopping.

Ricker gets paid to haul away junk, but he said clients are often pleased to learn their old things won’t just be tossed in the dump. Now he wants to take it to the next step.

Ricker is thinking about calling the future organization “No Waste Eugene.”

“Furniture, houseware, dishes, there’s electronic stuff, tools, hardware, books. Most of the stuff I haul off I think is reusable.” Ricker said. “Let’s have a place where people can take it rather than the dump, what I’m calling ‘in-between waste’ good enough people will use it if you give it to them but that thrift stores don’t want and ends up in the dump.”

Danielle Sirota visited Ricker’s weekly giveaways for a simple reason.

“I like free stuff,” Sirota said.

Sirota said she takes only a few things, such as an alarm clock or a new push cart. She said it’s no surprise the unwanted items get scooped up quick — she sees it all the time.

“People throw away so much. Even at my apartment building, they will put it out by the dumpster and then it will all just disappear,” Sirota said.

“Free stores,” where donated items are given away cost-free, have been around for decades, sometimes as occasional pop-up events and sometimes inside a storefront. They can be charity-driven or focused on creating social or environmental solutions.

Everyone is invited to Ricker’s giveaways, though the first hour is reserved for shoppers of limited financial means, he said. The events are held between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Sundays. Those seeking early entry are asked to call to schedule beforehand.

Ricker hopes the weekly giveaways generate enough interest and attention that others see the value in setting up a free store as a nonprofit with a physical location. But that idea is in its infancy, Ricker said, and for now it’s just him and, sometimes, volunteers.

Shannon Wellborn, one of those volunteers, said she always has visited sharing and giveaway events as a cheap alternative to buying items like books new or even used.

But after her fist visit to Ricker’s storage unit, she said she was eager to help out.

“I was just so enamored,” Wellborn said. “It might just look like a storage unit full of trash to you, but when you don’t have any means for anything it’s a wonderful resource.”

Ricker recently moved the location of his free giveaways. He now hosts them Sundays at Quail’s Nest Mini Storage at 90010 Prairie Road in Eugene.