Trashy #TBT: The WasteShed's first 4 years (2014-2017)
In observance of The WasteShed’s 10th Anniversary, here are some things we did in our first 4 years:
We opened for business in Humboldt Park, with some beat-up Ikea shelves and a hand-painted cupboard door for a sign, a couple of volunteers with no idea what they were getting into, in an old corner store with no real ceiling, no real floor and murderous front steps.
Opening day 2014
ReuseConex 2014
We travelled to Austin, Texas for ReuseConex, the biennial conference for the international Reuse Alliance. We met with representatives of many reuse-oriented organizations and companies, and compared notes with the leadership of creative reuse centers from San Francisco to Durham, NC. There are so many of us, and more all the time! Our ReUSA map illustrated all the creative reuse centers in the US at that time.
The ReUSA Map with every creative reuse center marked with a googly eye
That winter we hosted monthly Radical Mending, dyeing and wreath-making workshops, and tried to keep warm. We started our VolunTuesday volunteer parties.
The Young & The Reuseless
We started a meetup group to check out Chicago-area reuse businesses, organizing tours of sites like The Plant, Evanston Rebuilding Warehouse, Random Acts of Flowers, Repurposed Materials and the Chicago Mattress Recycling. We recently rediscovered the Y&R tumblr(!)
That summer we hosted knitting and stencil-making workshops, and finally made enough money to hire our first employee, Francesca Dana.
OG WasteShed crew Eleanor Ray and Francesca Dana
We celebrated turning 1 and gathered some friends
Remember the time we got in 400 plasticore signs from White Castle?
We made so many weird things out of them
We got our first few small grants from Chicago Community Trust’s Young Leaders Fund and the Lagunitas Community Foundation. Much love also to the small business and DIY scene friends who raised money to support us in these early lean years, including Archie’s bar, Cafe Mustache, Pinky Swear, The Stabettes and many more.
By the time we’d run out of space and decided to move to a bigger facility in the summer of 2017, we had diverted 36,000 lbs of materials from the wastestream, were receiving over 500 visitors per month, and had hosted over 60 volunteer events, music shows, workshops, and field trips. Most of this was self-funded by sales (a whopping total of $57,000 in 2017).
Stay tuned for Part 2 of The WasteShed’s Trashy Memories!
If you are impressed by or nostalgic about any of this, please donate to support our 10 Year Anniversary Fundraiser!