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tii If How to discard unwanted finishing material In a book by Charles Duming, How Much. is Enough (a chilling but realis- tic view of the disappointing conse- quences of the consumer society), I found a reference to Edmund Fitzgerald. Now there's a name that should ring a bell with Canadian history buffs who are versed in the ongoing saga of the Great Lakes. The present day Edmund F lives in Montana and is a man own heart. He is a saver and a extra-ordinaire. He became so concerned with the waste in our culture, he published a journal to reprint interesting articles from obscure magazines and report on salvage heroics in everyday kitchens and gardens. He founded the National 00....OOOO....00...OOOOOOOOO3.000.000.000000COOOOOOOOOOOOO itzgerald after my salvager Association of Dumpster Divers and Urban Miners (NADDUM) and pub- lished the NADDUM News that fea- tured articles about the care and feed- ing of Mother Earth. I wrote for a subscription only to learn the magazine had folded because of personal demands of time and money prevented him from enjoying the pleasures of the easy life that scav- enging had provided for him. -l have ordered all the available back issues and I will report on them within a couple of weeks. I think they will be a delight if the writing is up to the standard of the letter he wrote to me. Meanwhile. back to the mainstream press and a topic that relates to sal- vage. Harris Mitchell - whose column has appeared in The Star for many years - replied as follows to a query about burning painted wood in the fire- Dlace. "Paint from a 70-year-old verandah is sure to contain a lot of lead. Most of the lead fumes will go up the chimney, of course, but some will certainly stay in the house." "And even lead that goes up the chimney will be a hazard to other peo- ple, particularly young children play- ing outside. My advice: Take all the painted wood to a disposal area." The April '93 issue of American Woodworker dealt with a closely relat ed topic: disposing of unwanted finish ing materials. Showing an admirable concern for our future, they point out we have a moral obligation to take action that will not harm the environment in dis- posing of hazardous wastes even if the local municipality offers no help in providing seasonal pick-ups. They offer some simple solutions that reduce the dangers of disposal. Let the finishing materials turn to solids by evaporation. Dried paint and coatings are far less troublesome in land-fills. The evaporation can be done by leaving cans open outside so the mate- rials dry in the can, or if you have a lot left in the can, brush it onto scrap wood or old cardboard. (See 'Responsibility ' page 12)