Think traditional craft store crossed with a funky garage sale curated by your artistic next-door-neighbor.

Creative reuse centers are shops or warehouses where you can buy materials in bulk that would otherwise end up in the landfill. Geared towards artists, teachers, parents and crafters seeking raw materials, the sector has been growing quickly across the U.S. These centers have an exponential upside -- they create green-collar jobs, reduce waste and offer artists an affordable place to buy supplies. One person's trash is another person's treasure.

"It used to be just the poor, starving artist stereotype of taking found materials and dumpster diving out of necessity," says MaryEllen Etienne, executive director of the Reuse Alliance, a national group based in Dayton, Ohio. "We see that still, but there's more thought in it. They're trying to have an impact by showing that these things can still be beautiful and have meaning rather than just wasting away in a landfill."

As part of our ongoing national series about what's driving creative change in America's cities, Issue Media Group is taking a deep dive into the creative reuse movement, seeing how it's improving urban life -- one necklace-made-from-vinyl-flooring at a time. 

Art supplies

The creative reuse economy has exploded in recent years, with more and more artists using upcycled objects in their work. There are over 300,000 items tagged "upcycled" on Etsy, compared with just 10,000 a few years ago. Artists everywhere are creating viable new businesses by turning discarded items into new products.

Nicole McGee is a Cleveland artist who makes jewelry, bouquets of flowers and artwork out of scraps of vinyl flooring, plastic bottles, corks and other things people throw away. 

"There's a creative reuse movement that's growing in Rust Belt cities," says McGee, 33, who lives in the Cleveland EcoVillage on city's near west side. Her business, appropriately called Plenty Underfoot, is inspired by the idea that there is more than enough stuff lying underneath our feet to create the goods we need in our lives. 

"The idea of reducing consumption is one I feel strongly about," she says. "Because of our history of making things here, places like Cleveland are friendly to this industry."

As it turns out, so are many cities. From an architectural salvage warehouse that makes art out of iron door knockers in Sarasota to a Minneapolis artist who makes sculptures out of junk to a Baltimore jeweler who breaks grandma's unloved plates and fashions them into much-loved necklaces, creative reuse artists are springing up everywhere.

Here in Philadelphia, Warren Muller sculpts astounding light fixtures from salvaged objects. He has created pieces for some of the area's top restaurants and event spaces.

McGee's practice has also become a successful business. She has made centerpieces for restaurant chains in Cleveland, offers workshops on reuse to would-be crafters and teaches crafting to school kids. 

Now she is opening her own creative reuse center. In partnership with a nonprofit, she recently snagged a $375,000 grant from ArtPlace America, a group of national arts funders that provides funding for creative placemaking projects. She will launch Urban Upcycle, selling crafting materials as well as artists' wares in long-empty storefronts in the St. Clair Superior neighborhood two miles east of downtown. Longterm plans include workshops for residents, an incubator to help businesses get started and an online marketplace for reuse artists. 

"We'll be revitalizing the downtown strip of this neighborhood in ways that create new learning and skills in residents who live here," says McGee. "We'll be inviting them in."

Models of creativity

There are now 42 creative reuse centers across the U.S. The largest ones, like SCRAP in Portland, Oregon, employ as many as 20 people and have developed a strong base of funding. To grow the movement, organizations like the Reuse Alliance are offering training and conferences to share best practices. 

Though every center operates differently, they all share a mission to repurpose donated materials into creative projects, thus helping the environment. That might mean selling rolls of yarn to crafters, offering donated art supplies to artists, or selling activity kits to teachers hungry for hands-on art projects. 

Here in Philadelphia, The Resource Exchange started as a clearinghouse for broken-down theater sets and props. They eventually expanded their mission to include arts and craft supplies, building and home improvement materials and home decor. After a stint at the Navy Yard, the Resource Exchange moved into a permanent space in Port Richmond. In their first year alone, they saved over 30 tons of materials for reuse and helped recycle over 600 tons of additional material previously destined for landfills.

Denver's Resource Area for Teaching (RAFT), part of a national organization with centers in Sacramento and San Jose, focuses exclusively on educators, whether they're teaching artists, after-school program mentors or regular classroom teachers. Teachers come to RAFT to find funky, affordable art supplies for their classrooms.  

"We support teachers' efforts to do more project-based, hands-on learning by giving them the resources to do that," says Stephanie Welsh, Executive Director of RAFT Colorado. "Sitting there passively is not how kids learn, and we understand that."

Despite rock-bottom prices -- new supplies are priced at 80 percent off retail while used supplies are priced at 90 percent off -- RAFT earns 30 to 40 percent of its annual revenue from sales at its store. The remainder is raised from foundations and private individuals. So far this year, RAFT Colorado has repurposed 19,000 cubic feet of donated materials. 

The Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse serves a broader constituency. The organization started 10 years ago in a 500-square-foot space that was once a men's bathroom and "had one window that sort of worked," says Erika Johnson, the group's executive director. PCCR now operates out of a 4,200 square foot warehouse it shares with building supply reuse store Construction Junction. 

The group teaches children and adults the art of creative reuse at libraries, festivals and senior centers, and supports creative reuse artists by providing them with low-cost materials.  

PCCR diverts about two tons per month from the landfill. "That's a drop in the bucket compared to what goes into landfills every day," says Johnson. "But it's also a lot of Volkswagens [of trash] that have found their way into creative projects in the city."

"Part of the reason why Pittsburgh has been a great place to start a reuse center is that we already had a strong tradition of valuing our past here," she adds. "There's a strong tradition of making our past new and also of telling stories through our material culture."

Other organizations are, well, scrappier. For instance, SCRAP DC, which launched three years ago, stored its materials in volunteers' sunrooms, closets and garages for the first year, bringing the "gospel of creative reuse" to the city's residents through mobile workshops. 

SCRAP DC will soon move into a new 2,400-square-foot space that will be open four days per week. In addition to continuing its creative reuse workshops throughout the city, SCRAP will lease space to artists and offer a shared gallery for exhibitions.

"People are excited about it," says SCRAP co-founder Heather Bouley. "We are the only reuse center in D.C."

Creative reuse centers show the average person what's possible with found objects and make art more accessible to everyone, argues Carol Sirrine, executive director of ArtStart in St. Paul, which operates a creative reuse center called ArtScraps. 

In addition to the reuse center, ArtStart operates "ScrapMobile" out of a PT Cruiser, bringing free community arts programs to street corners, festivals and public schools.  

"Because of the green movement in recent years, there are more people doing this kind of art and it's rising to the level of fine artistry," she says, citing examples such as guitars made from old cigar boxes that are beautiful, functional art objects. 

Creative reuse grows up

As the reuse movement expands, so too does the customer base for raw materials and finished artistic products. With growth trending upwards, these centers are running larger, more sophisticated operations; meanwhile, the Reuse Alliance is spearheading a national creative reuse association.  

"There's a huge economic impact out there," says Etienne. "Some reuse centers have just a few employees and some have 20 employees. These are all green-collar jobs -- people making a living while doing something that's beneficial for the environment."

Etienne points out that not only is reuse good for the environment, but it also keeps money circulating locally, impacting local businesses and communities. 

In some ways, upcycled items are the ultimate "value-added" products. Artisans are transforming what was once deemed worthless into high-value items, salvaging materials that would cost money to throw away and turning a profit. 

Perhaps that's the creative reuse economy's lesson: the treasure is indeed underfoot.

Lee Chilcote, a Cleveland-based journalist, is Editorial Director of Issue Media Group and Development News editor at our sister publication Fresh Water Cleveland.