reDiscover Center is a non-profit organization that works with youth, adults, educators and communities to foster creativity in education through the arts while encouraging and actively supporting environmental sustainability. Using everyday discards donated by local businesses as a launching pad, reDiscover offers a range of hands-on educational programs and workshops in which items destined for our landfills become reused and “rediscovered” in new, creative ways. Since its founding in 2004, reDiscover has worked with over 24,000 people at its Culver City-based studio/warehouse and in schools and communities across Los Angeles County. Their goal is threefold: to provide youth with new ways to access environmental education through arts-based learning; to assist educators in fostering the innovative thinking necessary for youth to lead and thrive in the 21st century; and, to be a community catalyst for sustainability and the preservation of our planet’s limited resources. Their current strategic plan includes the future development of an exciting full-service facility, dedicated to empowering the reDiscover Center to fulfill our mission at a larger scale. Click here to learn more.
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Reuse involves extending the life of a product by 1) using it more than once (same or new function), 2) repairing it so it can be used longer (replacing the need for a new item), 3) sharing or renting it, or 4) selling or donating it to an other party.
While it’s definition is simple it includes many facets. To expound on this definition, Reuse includes:
Adaptive Reuse, which is a combination of traditional and creative reuse, refers to the process where an old/disused building is refurbished for a new purpose (e.g. when an defunct hotel is turned into a seniors housing complex or a empty big box store is turned into a community center).
Conventional Reuse is when the item is used again as-is for the same function it was manufactured for;
Creative Reuse (a.k.a. upcycling, repurposing) is when the addition of creativity brings a new function (e.g. furniture made of old sign posts, jewelry made of scrap materials).
Reclamation (a.k.a. salvage) is when items, such as bug-damaged wood or logs from river beds, are turned into new items furniture or home decor with minimal processing. In contrast to reuse, recycling (or down-cycling) is the breaking down of the used item into raw materials which are used to make new items (e.g. turning bug-damaged wood into sawdust or mulch).
Rental (a.k.a. sharing, collaborative consumption) is when items are shared and/or rented among a group of users (e.g. Zip Car, Tool Banks).
Repair (a.k.a. refurbishing, remanufacturing) is when an item is reconditioned and used for the same function (e.g. furniture refurnishing, shoe repair, toner remanufacturing);
Reusable is when an item is manufactured to be used over and over again, and to replace disposable (single-use) items (e.g. stainless steel canteens, zero waste lunch kits);
What are Reuse Centers and Virtual Exchanges?
Reuse organizations facilitate the transaction and redistribution of unwanted, yet perfectly usable, materials and equipment from one entity to another. The entities that benefit from either side of this service (as donors, sellers, recipients, or buyers) can be businesses, nonprofits, schools, community groups, and individuals.
Some services maintain physical space (a reuse center), and others act as an online match-making service (a virtual exchange). Reuse centers generally maintain both warehouses and trucks. They take possession of the donated materials and make them available for redistribution or sale. Virtual exchanges do not have physical space or trucks, but instead allow users to post listings of materials available and wanted (for free or at low cost) on an online materials exchange website. Staff can help facilitate the exchange of these materials without ever taking possession of the materials.
Do all Reuse Sector Organizations focus on reducing waste?
No. In fact, the core missions of many reuse organizations have little to do with their resulting environmental benefits. In some cases, the reuse operations can help these organizations with their social missions; such as feeding the homeless, providing essential supplies to poor mothers, providing books to school children, and resources to nonprofit arts organizations. And in other cases these operations serve as a source of revenue to fund other social service operations, such as a thrift store whose profits support people living with AIDS, or a bridal shop that provides funds for a charter school.
What are the benefits of choosing to Reuse?
By using a reuse centers or virtual exchange, you can:
find markets for your surplus materials
receive low or no-cost materials
reduce disposal and purchase costs
reduce waste and save landfill space
enhance the environmental image of your company
support nonprofit organizations through in-kind support
What lasting impacts does Reuse have on society?
The recovery and redistribution of unwanted, yet perfectly usable materials (i.e. reuse) is an environmentally and economically sound alternative to discarding items as trash. In contrast to recycling, which processes discards to extract components for the manufacture of a new product, reuse preserves a material’s resources, including the value of the materials, labor, technology, and energy incorporated in them.
By taking useful products and exchanging them, without reprocessing, Reuse Sector Organizations help save time, money, energy and resources. In broader economic terms, reuse offers quality products to people and organizations with limited means, while generating jobs and business activity that contribute to the economy.
Regardless of your business or need, reuse is a great way of lowering your costs either through the purchase of materials or in their disposal, and of course, contributing to a cleaner environment and less wasteful society.
There are thousands of reuse and remanufacturing organizations operating successfully throughout the USA and abroad have diverted hundreds of thousands of tons of material once destined for landfills. These services provide savings to companies in terms of disposal and material costs. Many companies spend a significant percentage of their budgets on waste disposal and raw materials. Many of these costs can be reduced through exchanging materials; turning what was once a significant drain on financial resources into profit!
Measuring the impacts of Reuse (Reuse Sector Data)
There are many ways of measuring the positive environmental, economic and social impact data reuse has on our communities.
These include, but are not limited, to:
# of tons diverted from the landfill
$ avoided dispoal costs (donor/seller)
$ avoided purchase costs (recipient/buyer)
$ value of materials donated (donor)
$ revenues earned (donor/seller)
# of job created or retained
# of families/individuals/organizations assisted
The Reuse Alliance is seeking funding opportunities to establish regional and/or national data standards (common language and methodology) for the reuse sector.
reDiscover Center is a non-profit organization that works with youth, adults, educators and communities to foster creativity in education through the arts while encouraging and actively supporting environmental sustainability. Using everyday discards donated by local businesses as a launching pad, reDiscover offers a range of hands-on educational programs and workshops in which items destined for our landfills become reused and “rediscovered” in new, creative ways. Since its founding in 2004, reDiscover has worked with over 24,000 people at its Culver City-based studio/warehouse and in schools and communities across Los Angeles County. Their goal is threefold: to provide youth with new ways to access environmental education through arts-based learning; to assist educators in fostering the innovative thinking necessary for youth to lead and thrive in the 21st century; and, to be a community catalyst for sustainability and the preservation of our planet’s limited resources. Their current strategic plan includes the future development of an exciting full-service facility, dedicated to empowering the reDiscover Center to fulfill our mission at a larger scale. Click here to learn more.
