Support the Cortland community, environment, and economy thru ReUse!
Leader
Kat McCarthy
Location
The City of Cortland CORTLAND, NY 13045
A ReUse Center in Cortland will be a WIN-WIN-WIN: for the local economy, the environment, and the community. We NEED YOUR HELP to get the project off the ground. By donating to the Cortland Community ReUse Project campaign you will support the opening and operation of the store and needed equipment, along with creating jobs and providing quality low-cost goods to our community. Cortland ReUse is a project of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cortland County (CCE-Cortland) seeking to strengthen the economy, community, and environment through reuse and sustainable materials management.
We are in the process of securing a location for our coming ReUse Center, and anticipate that we will be ready to open a local store in 2021.
We have already started collecting used goods to add to our inventory and are selling select items online. We are currently borrowing trucks and space to store these products. Once we reach our goal we will start procuring all the equipment and technology needed to open the store. After a site is ready, we plan to stock the store within days for our grand opening.
There are many reasons why we feel this project is so special. We believe a ReUse Center will help solve social, economic, and environmental problems in our neighborhood.
Environmentally, when we buy secondhand goods, there are fewer resources and energy inputs required. It also helps keep "old stuff" out of the local landfill, which will prolong the life of the landfill, and reduce our local environmental impact.
Economically, ReUse can have a huge impact. To dispose of a ton of materials in the landfill costs about $80-90 per ton. But when you instead donate that "stuff" to the ReUse Center and it’s resold, it can yield between $2,000 and $4,000 per ton! This helps create jobs, and keeps that money in our local community. Additionally, reselling also gives people other options to purchase goods at low cost without having to buy from big national corporations, which send the vast majority of the money out of town.
Socially, ReUse Centers provide a lot of value to communities. It's not just “a place to shop.” It can be a place for job training. It can be a gathering spot for groups to share skills, such as a fixers collective or an artistic reuse collective. It is the kind of place that makes people proud of the community in which they live.