The Scrap Exchange

The Scrap Exchange's mission is to promote creativity, environmental awareness and community through reuse. The organization is the only non profit creative reuse center in the state, and is a favorite downtown Durham destination. In 1991, Chris Rosenthal, and a board of directors started The Scrap Exchange. Ms. Rosenthal is also the founder of an Australian program called “The Reverse Garbage Truck”. Since then, The Scrap Exchange has collected tons of North Carolina’s discards- in the form of fabric, cones, tubes, zippers, elastic, lace, foam, paper, matte board, boxes baskets, adhesives and various other materials that are not recycled.
The creative reuse center, located in Durham’s Liberty Warehouse, houses a retail store, artists marketplace, workshop /birthday party room/open studio, art gallery, office, and warehouse. The store not only serves the Durham community, and is a destination for those who are in need of interesting, high quality, affordable materials. The Scrap Exchange sells the materials at 50-75% off retail value.
The Scrap Exchange's operation is straightforward: a nonprofit 501-c3, it collects material donations from hundreds of individuals, businesses, industries, and municipal sources and distributes them through a creative reuse center located in Durham. Further distribution of the materials occurs in the form of outreach events, workshops and Birthday parties. The materials collected represent a glimpse of local industry and businesses. The donors receive a tax letter for the fair market value, the arts community has access to hard to find, affordable materials, and The Scrap Exchange prevents reusable items from entering the waste stream. The organization is primarily self sufficient, but does seek funding to keep operational costs of programming and materials affordable. Recent grants and donations have come from the Durham Arts Council, Triangle Community Foundation, Daniel Cameron Foundation, RTI, North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance, Tri-Giving Circle, and individual donations.