Farmers are the original recyclers, and a company called repurposedMATERIALS is matching creative
users with expired industrial products that otherwise would be headed for the landfill.
“We take items that are obsolete to their primary industry, but can find a successful, second life,” said Damon Carson, founder and president of the company. “You might call us an ‘industrial thrift store.’”
While farmers aren’t their only customers, they are among the most regular purchasers of goods that find their way into the company’s five warehouses throughout the country. In the world of repurposedMATERIALS, a retired street sweeper brush becomes a cow back-scratcher; a vinyl billboard sign is transformed into a hay tarp; an old railroad rail becomes a cattle guard; and a rubber conveyor belt morphs into a livestock feeder.
“We bring in all this stuff, and we don’t even know what’s going to happen to it,” declared Carson. “We just wait and listen.”
The company recently extended its reach to chemicals, ingredients, and overstocked products, like this batch of 96,000 mislabeled latex gloves that might find their way to a milking parlor or ten.
Materials can be acquired on-site from warehouses in Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Iowa, and South Carolina, or shipping arrangements also can be made. Interested customers may sign up for a weekly e-mail newsletterhighlighting recent applications and acquisitions of goods.
Carson claims industrial repurposing makes sense both environmentally and economically. “We divert hundreds of thousands of pounds of materials from the landfill to new industries that can give them a second life,” he shared. “At the same time, purchasing these goods saves our customers 50-75% over buying new.”
And if you have industrial goods of which you’d like to dispose, you can contact the company or e-mail them pictures and a description. “If you don’t want it, we might!” said Carson.
