Welcome to Who Gives a SCRAP Creative Reuse Center
What Colorado cities have the best recycling rate?
“We might think of ourselves as a green state but on average, each Coloradan is putting seven pounds of trash a day in landfills,” Danny Katz, director of the advocacy group CoPIRG said in a release. “This is not surprising when you consider 25 Colorado counties don’t offer curbside recycling services and seven counties don’t even have drop-off centers. Our policies in Colorado are pushing us to do the wrong thing – throw everything in the trash can.” See where does your city ranks? Read the article here
More than 35 million pounds of trash is produced in Colorado every day, and more than $267 million worth of recyclables like aluminum cans and cardboard end up in Colorado landfills every year, according the report.
The Colorado Association for Recycling is hoping to change the way you think about recycling and specifically corrugated cardboard. On March 5, 2013, Fort Collins became the first community in Colorado requiring corrugated cardboard to be recycled or reused, diverting an anticipated 12,000 tons of bulky cardboard from cluttering our landfill. The association has begun talks with the Colorado Springs City Council to create a cardboard disposal ban for Colorado Springs businesses. Read the article here
It’s a good place to start, but what about all of those other items that are not considered recyclable? Who Gives a SCRAP would like to see greater community collaboration to divert more from the waste stream and landfill. With two locations (Fort Collins and Colorado Springs) our tiny little business has diverted over 70 tons of arts and crafting supplies! Just imagine the possibilities if our communities started thinking about more than just cardboard, paper, glass, plastic and aluminum.
In October we attended the First International Creative Reuse Conference in Durham, NC. The Scrap Exchange, who hosted, has been in business for over 26 years. Their city, county and local municipalities are working together to build a reuse campus which will reside on 23 acres in an old vacated shopping center. It will house a creative reuse center/thrift store, a maker space, classroom and office space, affordable housing, food rescue, community gardens to name just a few. What would it take to do that in our communities?
It is worth starting the conversation on a larger scale and put financial resources to better use for more than just the big 5 recyclables (cardboard, paper, glass, plastic and aluminum.) Who Gives a SCRAP is tiny but we have made a difference, a 70 ton difference. As we like to say at our shops, we are a place of possibilities and why not be a State (Colorado) of possibilities.
Thanks again to all of our staff, volunteers, donors, and community partners. We appreciate you so much and all you do to help us with our mission of trash diversion!
Carly, Lorrie and Jayne
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested in touring one of our shops, and have a large group, please give us at least 24 hours notice so that we can have enough staff on hand to have proper coverage for our customers and groups. Thank you!
Who Gives a SCRAP Creative Reuse Center is open at two locations -Old Colorado City in Colorado Springs and Fort Collins. For more information about our store locations and hours click here.
Who Gives a SCRAP is an eclectic scrap store that carries an impressive mix of vintage and up-cycled materials. We carry everything from scrapbooking paper to game pieces, used books and sewing patterns, the variety is a crafters dream. We believe that the reuse of goods and materials is the most efficient, environmentally friendly and economically viable way to reduce the waste stream. Our shop is open to the public and our ever changing inventory is based on individual and business donations.
Many teachers are responsible for buying their own supplies for their students and their classrooms and can spend upwards of $500. Who Gives a SCRAP is here to help reduce the expense by offering low-cost options. If you are a hobbyist or artist looking for inexpensive supplies, Who Gives a SCRAP is here to help.
If visiting Fort Collins, follow the Resale Trail - A Self-Guided Tour of local resale shops.
Our reuse centers to date, have diverted 180,318.73 pounds (90.2 tons!) of clean, reusable materials from ending up in the El Paso and Larimer County landfills since collection began in July 2015 and 85,918 visitors.
2018
COS - 12,404.5 pounds diverted as of April 29, 2018
FoCo - 14,354 pounds diverted as of April 29, 2018
2017
COS - 48,078.70 pounds diverted
FoCo - 29,949.90 pounds diverted
2016
COS - 48,660.05 pounds diverted
FoCo - 18,257.90 pounds diverted
2015
COS - 9,391.53 pounds donated and diverted
1202 customers served (Nov.1- Dec 31)
“We might think of ourselves as a green state but on average, each Coloradan is putting seven pounds of trash a day in landfills,” Danny Katz, director of the advocacy group CoPIRG said in a release. “This is not surprising when you consider 25 Colorado counties don’t offer curbside recycling services and seven counties don’t even have drop-off centers. Our policies in Colorado are pushing us to do the wrong thing – throw everything in the trash can.” See where does your city ranks? Read the article here
More than 35 million pounds of trash is produced in Colorado every day, and more than $267 million worth of recyclables like aluminum cans and cardboard end up in Colorado landfills every year, according the report.
The Colorado Association for Recycling is hoping to change the way you think about recycling and specifically corrugated cardboard. On March 5, 2013, Fort Collins became the first community in Colorado requiring corrugated cardboard to be recycled or reused, diverting an anticipated 12,000 tons of bulky cardboard from cluttering our landfill. The association has begun talks with the Colorado Springs City Council to create a cardboard disposal ban for Colorado Springs businesses. Read the article here
It’s a good place to start, but what about all of those other items that are not considered recyclable? Who Gives a SCRAP would like to see greater community collaboration to divert more from the waste stream and landfill. With two locations (Fort Collins and Colorado Springs) our tiny little business has diverted over 70 tons of arts and crafting supplies! Just imagine the possibilities if our communities started thinking about more than just cardboard, paper, glass, plastic and aluminum.
In October we attended the First International Creative Reuse Conference in Durham, NC. The Scrap Exchange, who hosted, has been in business for over 26 years. Their city, county and local municipalities are working together to build a reuse campus which will reside on 23 acres in an old vacated shopping center. It will house a creative reuse center/thrift store, a maker space, classroom and office space, affordable housing, food rescue, community gardens to name just a few. What would it take to do that in our communities?
It is worth starting the conversation on a larger scale and put financial resources to better use for more than just the big 5 recyclables (cardboard, paper, glass, plastic and aluminum.) Who Gives a SCRAP is tiny but we have made a difference, a 70 ton difference. As we like to say at our shops, we are a place of possibilities and why not be a State (Colorado) of possibilities.
Thanks again to all of our staff, volunteers, donors, and community partners. We appreciate you so much and all you do to help us with our mission of trash diversion!
Carly, Lorrie and Jayne
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
If you are interested in touring one of our shops, and have a large group, please give us at least 24 hours notice so that we can have enough staff on hand to have proper coverage for our customers and groups. Thank you!
Who Gives a SCRAP Creative Reuse Center is open at two locations -Old Colorado City in Colorado Springs and Fort Collins. For more information about our store locations and hours click here.
Who Gives a SCRAP is an eclectic scrap store that carries an impressive mix of vintage and up-cycled materials. We carry everything from scrapbooking paper to game pieces, used books and sewing patterns, the variety is a crafters dream. We believe that the reuse of goods and materials is the most efficient, environmentally friendly and economically viable way to reduce the waste stream. Our shop is open to the public and our ever changing inventory is based on individual and business donations.
Many teachers are responsible for buying their own supplies for their students and their classrooms and can spend upwards of $500. Who Gives a SCRAP is here to help reduce the expense by offering low-cost options. If you are a hobbyist or artist looking for inexpensive supplies, Who Gives a SCRAP is here to help.
If visiting Fort Collins, follow the Resale Trail - A Self-Guided Tour of local resale shops.
Our reuse centers to date, have diverted 180,318.73 pounds (90.2 tons!) of clean, reusable materials from ending up in the El Paso and Larimer County landfills since collection began in July 2015 and 85,918 visitors.
2018
COS - 12,404.5 pounds diverted as of April 29, 2018
FoCo - 14,354 pounds diverted as of April 29, 2018
2017
COS - 48,078.70 pounds diverted
FoCo - 29,949.90 pounds diverted
2016
COS - 48,660.05 pounds diverted
FoCo - 18,257.90 pounds diverted
2015
COS - 9,391.53 pounds donated and diverted
1202 customers served (Nov.1- Dec 31)
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