Serving chicago’s Creative and educational communities with a passion for Art and reuse
Our Mission
The WasteShed provides Chicago with an organized, affordable, and reliable resource for repurposed art, craft, and school materials, and with a dynamic center for activities related to sustainability, art, craft, education, and material culture. We connect Chicagoans who are interested in:
living more sustainably
seeking inspiration in unconventional materials
getting the most out of the resources they have on hand
or just making projects at a low cost.
While sustainability is the ultimate goal, creative reuse foregrounds practical, economical, and fun hands-on activities as points of entry into larger discussions about the things we own, and the way we live.
If this sounds like something you’d like to get mixed up in, please get in touch!
“As of December 10th, 2015, The WasteShed is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit!”
Newsletter Archive
The WasteShed is supported in part by grants from:
ComEd: Powering the Arts
Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events
The Whirled Peas Foundation
The Sargent Family Foundation
Christ Church Winnetka
The Protolabs Foundation
and the Illinois Art Council Agency.
Our Impact
2022 Heat map of where WasteShed materials end up — in schools in and nonprofits all over the Chicago area.
350+ schools and nonprofits served since 2018
Between 2018 and 2022, The WasteShed’s materials were in use in over 350 schools and nonprofit organizations in Illinois, with teachers visiting from as far away as Los Angeles, and from every zip code in Chicago.
We provide resources across the entire Chicagoland area
This heat map of the distribution of organizations (see image above) that make the trip to our West Side location reflects a deep need for the resources The WasteShed provides throughout the greater Chicago area. Learn more here.
High-quality, carbon-negative materials for art and education
We estimate the total value of the supplies redirected to Chicago-area schools, artists and teachers last year at over $500,000.
The Wasteshed Evanston’s Free To Teachers section provided local educators with $8,807 in totally free materials in 2022! Learn more here.
30 tons diverted from the landfill in 2022, over 130 tons total processed since opening!
In 2022, the combined powers of our Evanston and Humboldt locations diverted 61,218 lbs of materials (over 30 tons) away from the landfill and back into the community. This is roughly the weight of an (unloaded) freight train car. This is also 32% more than our previous record from 2019, and 25% of our grand total from the last 8 years (122 tons!)