An Impactful Year
This was a big year for Reuse Alliance. By far the biggest leap we took in 2025 was opening The Reuse Hub, a brick and mortar location in the Petaluma Village Premium Outlets, where we are raising the visibility of reuse resources in the North Bay. The Hub provides office space, staging and storage for all our operations, and exponentially expands our ability to serve the public. We are open five days a week and offer additional services, including workshops (in all four types of reuse), repair consultations, community events (panels, roundtables, meet-ups, swaps), and more.
Repair Fairs continue to gain in popularity thanks to robust word-of-mouth and stepped-up outreach via social media as well as news outlets. We doubled the number of Repair Fairs this year, expanding our reach beyond Sonoma County into Marin and Napa Counties and diverting a total of 38,103 pounds. Demand remains high. Many attendees expressed appreciation in glowing reviews. Doreen, writing about the San Anselmo Repair Fair, pretty much sums up the prevailing enthusiasm: “This was the most fun I’ve had in a long time!!!!” Note the four exclamation points!
Spreading the joy of reuse is at the core of our mission; to this end we participated in over 30 outreach events attended by 4,560 people. We saw our digital reach expand as well with a 36% increase in the readership of the Reuse News (our monthly newsletter) to over 2800 subscribers, with over 3,500 followers on social media. Our annual Reuse Awareness campaign - Join the Re-conomy - reached over 120,000 people.
A lot went on behind the scenes to support the visibly growing presence of the Reuse Alliance in the North Bay. Increased financial support from donors, members, foundations, and income for our services made opening The Reuse Hub possible. We added staff to manage our growing programs with additional hiring planned for 2026. Our amazing board of directors continues to provide expertise and we hope to expand its membership in the new year.
Repair Fairs were supported by fruitful partnerships with Zero Waste Sonoma and Zero Waste Marin, cities, local nonprofits, Recology Sonoma Marin, libraries and community centers. We collaborated with over 60 partners to realize these community based events.
To continue operating the Reuse Hub and to further expand our offerings we hope to increase our operating budget by 20% in 2026. We will be launching a Reuse Hub membership in the New Year. Membership benefits will include access to our new Library of Things (where you can borrow dishes, tools, clothing racks, furniture, etc.). Reuse Alliance members will receive Hub memberships as part of their benefits.
This holiday season please consider making a donation or becoming a member to help us continue to raise awareness about reuse. Check out our Strategic Plan to learn about our plans for the future and stay tuned for more exciting programs on the drawing board. We are counting on your donations to help make them a reality!
With gratitude from the Reuse Alliance Team
Visit our Upcoming Events Page for details, to pre-register, or to volunteer.
On the Upcoming Events page you’ll find a full list of our upcoming Repair Fairs and other community events including details on location, how to pre-register and how to get involved. Click here to sign up to volunteer at an event.
Sat Jan 10 : San Rafael Repair Fair + Clothing & Book Swap : 1pm - 4pm : San Rafael Community Center
Sat Jan 24 : Healdsburg Repair Fair + Clothing Swap : 1pm - 4pm : Healdsburg Community Center
Sat Jan 31 : Sausalito Repair Fair + Clothing & Book Swap : 10am - 1pm : Sausalito City Hall
Join us at the Reuse Hub
Our last event of the year is an amazing workshop where you’ll learn to convert an old speaker into a bluetooth enabled speaker taught by Roger Gadget Guy!
You can also bring all your gifts to the Reuse Hub and wrap them in reuse. Sign up for our reusable gift wrap workshop this Saturday.
Upcoming Workshops at the Reuse Hub (visit our workshops page for more details)
Reusable Gift Wrapping : Saturday Dec 20th - 3pm
Convert a Speaker to Bluetooth : Sunday Dec 21st - 1pm
Basics of Mending and Patching by Hand : Wednesday Jan 7th - 1pm
Can Tab Crafting : Friday Jan 9th - 1pm
Reverse Applique with T-Shirts : Saturday January 17th - 1pm
Learn to Crochet: Reusable Cotton Rounds : Friday Jan 23rd - 4pm
Other Opportunities
Jan 9 : Call for Speakers for the 2026 North Bay Zero Waste Symposium and Save the Date for Thursday May 7th, 2026
Jan 31 : Deadline for Proposals to Speak at CRRA taking place in San Diego Aug 30 - Sep 2, 2026.
Revistaliste is Hiring! Check out the role here.
In case we don’t say it enough. A big thank you to all our volunteers + partners. We couldn’t do it without you.
Happy Holidays!
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