2 Million Pounds!!!

On October 29, 2011, before Austin Creative Reuse even had a physical location, we ran our first public materials collection drive. We put out a request for specific materials and just hoped that folks would show up. Ten people dropped off an estimated 300 pounds of donations that day, and we commemorated the occasion in one of our very first blog posts. Fast forward almost 10 years, to June 21, 2021 and we hit 1 million pounds of materials diverted from the landfill.

Today, we’re proud to announce that just shy of 2 years from hitting our first million, we have accepted our 2 millionth pound of donated materials! That’s roughly the equivalent weight of five adult Blue Whales - the largest animal on Earth!

Thanks to the generous size of our current space and the unparalleled generosity of our community, we have continued to grow and expand our reach throughout Austin. During a busy month, we now take in over 50,000 pounds of donated goods. We never imagined that we would fill an 11,000 square foot building, but here we are today with full shelves and a packed intake area, plus over 19 pallets of reusable materials in our side parking lot!

We're sending a massive thank you to every person who has donated to ACR since we started accepting materials over a decade ago, plus every staff member and volunteer who has helped return those millions of pounds back to the community. At this rate, the next million will be right around the corner! 🧡♻️✨