One of our favorite things to do as youngsters was visit the Recycle Shop at the Boston Children's Museum, a place where you could fill a bag with bits and pieces of paper, fabric, and plastic for arts and crafts projects. It was inspiring, as well as eco-friendly, as it prevented these various doodads from entering the landfill. As adults, we've been thrilled to discover that there are many more places like this.
Unlike salvage shops, scrap stores tend to carry items related to arts and crafts, although home improvement and decor items may be found, too. There's no telling what you might find on a given day. Depending on donations received from factories, businesses, and individuals, scrap stores might have paper, wood, metal, textiles, bottles, furniture, you name it! Many of them also operate as charities and do community outreach. All around, they are great businesses to support and shop from.
Here are some scrap stores around North America. Let us know if you have any to add!
• Art From Scrap in Santa Barbara, Calif.
• ArtScraps in St. Paul, Minn.
• Boston Children's Museum Recycle Shop in Boston, Mass.
• The Creation Station in Lansing, Mich.
• The East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse in Oakland, Calif.
• Hudson Valley Materials Exchange in New Paltz, N.Y.
• MECCA in Eugene, Ore.
• SCRAP in Portland, Ore.
• SCRAP in San Francisco, Calif.
• The Scrap Box in Ann Arbor, Mich.
• The Scrap Exchange in Durham, N.C.
• Urban Source in Vancouver, B.C.
Related: The Scrap Exchange: Durham, North Carolina
(Image: The Scrap Exchange)
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Scrap That!
2501 Burlington Mt Holly Road, Burlington Center Mall
Burlington, NJ 08016
Much as I love Scrap That (hope to get back up there for a crop in November), it's not the kind of scrap store they're talking about in this article.
In downtown Los Angeles, CA, there's Trash for Teaching. A $100 membership includes 100 lbs of free scrap!
Does anyone know of one in Atlanta?
L.A. Shares in Los Angeles and The Long Beach Depot for Creative Reuse (my fave!)
creativepitch.org in chicago will take your used/various office supplies and donate them to art classrooms around the city. while it's not a place where general consumer can "shop", per se, it's a cool organization to keep in mind when cleaning your office!
I used to go to The Scrap Box in Ann Arbor all the time as a kid and sometimes as an adult. Not always a lot of stuff that was useful to me, but sometimes you hit the jackpot (and it's pretty much always great for kids!).
There's also Urban Ore in Berkeley, CA, although that focuses more on construction/home remodeling scrap. Still, it's a fun place to wander around on the weekend.
Love The Scrap Exchange in North Carolina! It used to be in Raleigh many many many years ago and was the source for supplies for all my school projects growing up, including one badass representation of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse when I was in 5th grade! (Thanks to my dad, it even lit up!)
Was hoping there was one in NY and it's SO close :) Thanks for sharing can't wait to go check it out!