The final numbers are in! We started the ReCollective in September with just 40 members and by December we had over 100. You’ve already diverted so much waste. As you will see below, this includes an estimated 29,000 plastic bags.
Thank you to our early adopters! We can only imagine what impact we’ll achieve in 2023 with a full year together.
Thank you to our partners who took your materials to be reused or recycled in 2022! We are lucky to have a supportive community in The Triangle!
Greenzone, a local Durham textile reuse and recycling company, diverted the textiles as well as toys and kitchenware in 2022. This year we will be expanding our downstream partners to include additional community organizations in need.
The Scrap Exchange and Durham Farmers’ Market helped divert yard signs and plastic clamshells. Sometimes our downstream solutions are to look for a second life before finding recycling options. If community members and organizations can reuse these perfectly good materials before they are downcycled, we consider it a big win!
We partnered with Triangle Ecycling, a local Durham-based e-waste recycling organization, to recycle and repurpose small electronics.
The Scrap Exchange took a majority of the school supplies.
We received a LOT of styrofoam and plastic film from members- it’s not your fault, it’s the linear economy! Fortunately, thanks to Orange Recycling Services, we are able to divert 99% of what we receive.
We are also thankful to our partner, Fillaree, a Durham refillable soap company that helps you prevent household cleaning waste from happening in the first place! We are even able to take the empty soap containers back to be cleaned and reused.
A NOTE ON CONTAMINATION
The below picture is the table at our warehouse where the materials we can’t recycle go to be recorded. For transparency’s sake, we do have to landfill some materials. This group of materials comprises less than 1% of our total weight collected!
Does this mean we just throw away the things that can’t follow our normal reuse/recycling channels? No! In fact, our partner organization, Gather Green, will take some of these materials to be collected for artists, teachers, and other small businesses, so they can hopefully enjoy a second life. We try to make sure we do everything to keep what you give us out of the landfill!
These categories comprised most of the contamination:
- styrofoam food containers
- hard plastics in the plastic film canvas bag
- electric devices outside of the small electronics September ReCo month
If you have questions about what we do and don’t accept, email us or head to the materials page for more information.
