SCRAP Creative Reuse Ann Arbor

Mission: To inspire creative reuse and environmentally sustainable behavior by providing educational programs and affordable materials to the community.

SCRAP is a donation-based creative reuse store and donation center in Ann Arbor, MI. Along with the ever-changing and diverse store items, SCRAP also provides a range of educational opportunities within the community. We are a part of the SCRAP Creative Reuse network which has grassroots creative reuse centers across the country.

SCRAP Creative Reuse was founded in Portland OR in 1998 by a group of teachers who wanted to find a home for their leftover classroom materials. They brought these materials to A Teacher’s Space, a resource center for Portland Public School teachers, and left them on a table for others to use. In 1999, an innovative teacher named Joan Grimm got together with a handful of her peers and received a grant from the Department of Environmental Quality to open a small creative reuse center for the community.

SCRAP became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 1999. SCRAP Creative Reuse is a network of grassroots creative reuse centers around the country. From that first creative reuse center in Portland, we developed a model that could be shared in other communities in other places.

Creative Reuse (also known as upcycling or repurposing), is when the addition of creativity to an already manufactured item brings a new function. A CD jewel case can become a bird feeder, wine corks turned into a cork board, a t-shirt transformed into a rug. (as defined by The Reuse Alliance)

Creative Reuses Centers, like SCRAP, collect discarded materials from the public that can be reused and given new life. Many centers resell these items to the public for a bargain or donate them to teachers, organizations or other groups for further reuse.