With a unique approach to creating waste reuse, repurposedMATERIALS diverted approximately 16 million pounds of waste from landfills in 2022. Damon Carson, Founder and President, talks about how the company developed and helping organizations hit their waste diversion and sustainability goals.

Discuss the mission and origin of repurposedMATERIALS: I started the company when my two worlds collided. I used to own a traditional garbage company about 20 years ago that served ski resorts in Vail and Breckenridge, CO and we became very familiar with taking the big roll-off dumpsters primarily used by the construction industry. We would tip a big roll-off dumpster back and there would be three 2 x 4s, or a brand-new unwrapped window that must have been the wrong color or size, so we became very familiar with the fact that America can be a wasteful place. Another way to look at it is that there are about 93 percent1 of Americans who want to buy used products. For example, if they want a new mountain bike, they first go to Craigslist or Facebook MarketPlace first versus buying new. My aha! moment was in 2010 when I had an airbrush artist doing some subcontract work for us and he also worked in the advertising industry. He was walking out one day and he said, “If you ever get a chance to buy an old advertising billboard vinyl like you see along the highways, they make a great drop cloth for painting,” and I realized that there are a lot of these used materials that are obsolete to primary industry, but don’t need to be landfilled or recycled because they still have value as is.

 

Damon Carson, Founder and President of repurposedMATERIALS. Photos courtesy of repurposedMATERIALS.

What were the first materials that your company repurposed? I found 20 old advertising billboards for sale, picked them up, and put them on Cragislist, and they started selling but little did I know I was starting a company at that point; I had no grand vision. About six weeks later, I was talking to a guy who came to us because of the billboards, and we started talking about rubber products. A day or two later, I was googling it and I found used conveyor belting from the mining industry that was used for sand, rocks, aggregate, and we purchased a couple of rolls of that and found repurposed buyers. So, we started thinking, “Are there enough by-products in waste, cast offs and discards, unwanted materials that we could make a whole business out of this?”
The first year or two, I was concentrating on used materials like billboards, conveyor belts, but I quickly learned that waste to corporate America is anything you don’t want. Many times, it is new and unused, such as paint being the wrong color or a manufacturing mistake, etc. My definition of waste certainly broadened in those early years. A certain percentage of our stuff is new and unused, but the commonality is still material that is unwanted to primary industry.

Do you partner with certain organizations to consistently get material? Materials do not just come from one sector or industry. What drives phone calls and e-mails the most is change in real estate—companies that have collected stuff, are moving, and have materials that they need to get rid of. Other material that we get is from companies that need to make room for new products. They want to get the old products out-of-their warehouse and off-the-books, so they can bring in the newest make and model of whatever it is they are selling. It is not about sectors the material is coming from, it is more about what is the motivation for phone calls—it could be a change in corporate direction, or a pivoting business model and they get rid of stuff that does not fit their new direction. Construction is a huge source of materials, whether it is maintenance, a remodeling demolition, or construction projects where they ordered the wrong stuff or overordered, and a certain percentage is not going to be used, so it becomes unwanted material that is new, unused, and obsolete once the project is done.

We do have recurring sources, but I would say that the biggest percentage of our inventory, and the things that we help keep out of the landfills, are what I would call “one offs”. One day a company might decide to change all of their conveyor belts. A lot of times they shut down and change everything out in one day and there might be 2,000 to 3,000 feet depending on the size of the facility. It could also be dealing with used fire hoses from the fire department. A facility may have a plan to replace their fire hoses every five years, so what happens with all the old fire hoses? I think the buzzwords for these examples could be “planned obsolescence”.

Wind turbine playground.

How far out do you travel for material? How far does material come to you? We operate across the U.S., and we have six warehouses across the country. Our goal is to be within a day’s truck drive of the majority of the U.S. population, so we have warehouses in Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Iowa, Ohio, and South Carolina. Material comes in from all over the U.S. The reason for the warehouses being spread out is so we can accommodate and say yes to more waste streams when calls come. We recently took in some glass from a remodel at a consumer electronics retailer at a major Palo Alto California shopping center. They had just changed the style of glass for their atrium skylights, and it went to our Arizona warehouse. We, in turn, sold two truckloads of that glass to a winery in North Carolina for use as their atrium skylights. One of the interesting things is that it takes the whole nation to absorb a lot of these waste streams, so if we were only shopping that to Southwestern U.S. buyers, we would still have those two truckloads of glass, but because we’re national, we are able to take two truckloads of glass to a company that can use it and keep the material out of the landfill. While that was a big order that took two full 48′ semi-flat trailer bed trucks, a lot of our stuff we sell in small quantities, so it gets UPSed or FedExed in a box. The next level up is a pallet or two pallets of something and that goes on a different type of transportation. Our business is logistics intensive from transportation planning to storage strategies. People outside the industry look at reuse as just stuff that the corporation wants to get rid of, but it has to fit somewhere until you can find that second life for the material. Sometimes it takes a week or two, six months, or even more than a year to find homes for the material.

Aluminum bleachers repurposed as a boat dock.

 

Ski cables being reused as handrails.

 

Bowling lane wood reused as a kitchen countertop.

What are the most unusual materials that you have turned into reusable products? Is there anything that has been the most difficult to repurpose? A few years ago, we got a call from Comcast Cable. They had precast concrete pads that were about 4 inches thick and 4′ x 4′. In life number one, workers would go out to subdivisions and residential areas, and set the concrete on the dirt and drill holes in it in order to put their electronics equipment on it. Then, they would run the fiber optic cables out to each residence, so they had cable TV. They called us because the material had been sitting for 10+ years and they were selling that yard and needed to get rid of the concrete pads. Now, there are usually three things we look for when considering taking on material for repurposing—that it is generic, versatile, and adaptable, so we are able to rehome it fairly quickly. A few weeks later, a trucking company reached out to our Denver, CO-based location and bought all those concrete pads to use when they are taking half full trucks to Wyoming on a windy day. If the trucks don’t have enough weight on them, they can blow over on the interstate with the high winds, so these concrete pads are used for weight or balance. Our team never would have thought about that in two weeks even if we had studied it, but you show that generic,versatile, and adaptable waste stream to a trucking company manager, and he thought of it as an instant solution.

One of the materials in which we have not had success are escalator handrails. Because these are wear parts—they get replaced by tens of thousands of feet annually in airports and shopping malls, etc. We have taken them in three or four times over the time we have been in business, and we have never found a great repurpose for them. It’s a great candidate, but thus far, we have not found commercially viable second home for it.

Sometimes, we ultimately misjudge material thinking that we can re-home it, but if it sits one or two years, and we still have not found anything, we host an online auction and will put a dollar on it to start and it’ll go up from there or it will stay at that price. What we have found is if it is priced cheap enough, you can make almost anything go away. However, this is our last resort if needed.

How can organizations partner with repurposedMATERIALS? The best way to contact us is through our website: www.repurposedmaterials.com. A great number of materials that we get come via referrals from folks in the waste and recycling industries.  We find time and again that companies don’t know who to call when they have obsolete, but still useable, materials.  They often call their waste providers, local landfill, or recycling officials, etc.  It is waste industry professionals who often know who and where to send various types of unwanted materials.  So, we very much appreciate all referrals the waste industry gives to companies with unwanted items.  While repurposing and reuse does not solve all of America’s waste problems, we are a tool to help waste professionals.

How is the company continuing to grow and what are its goals for the future? We accomplished approximately 16 million pounds of waste diversion in 2022. Our goal is to keep 20 million pounds out of the landfill through this active repurposing as we continue to grow and develop a bigger reputation in 2023. I think it could be 25 million pounds in a few years and maybe 50 million pounds in a decade because there is just so much out there. Much of the waste coming out of industry has value and it does not need to be thrown away or landfilled. Why spend the time and cost in capital when it still has value? It just needs to be marketed for reuse.

Currently, we have a widely followed daily e-newsletter and a robust social media presence. We are always canvassing industry, asking them what they are throwing away that might have value as is. I have already had several e-mails this morning about unwanted material or wanting to make a deal about others. I am proud that we are helping corporate America hit their landfill waste diversion and sustainability goals. | WA

Damon Carson can be reached at (720) 615-0281 or e-mail [email protected].

Note
1. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/getting-thrifty-93-americans-now-135522261.html

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