People have been reusing and repairing things forever. Like, literally since the dawn of humankind. But over the past century, big business has taught most Americans that new is best, reuse is only if necessary, sharing is weird, and repair is just too difficult.
As a result, we consume and throw away more things now than ever before, depleting the Earth of precious resources, depriving people of precious land, and locating our ever-growing waste and pollution in ever-closer proximity to BIPOC communities and communities with low incomes.
For 24 years, ReBuilding Center has helped people re-learn that reuse and repair are not only possible, but they’re also joyous, self-sustaining, and political practices.
Making reclaimed materials and repair skills available and affordable creates economic resilience for people with low incomes, reduces the extraction of natural resources, and helps create an alternative economy that challenges the scarcity mindset that capitalism and racism rely on.
We fundraise with our community because we strive to keep our prices as low as possible, and we dream of a day when we’ve raised enough money in donations and memberships to allow us to just give away most of our materials. That would be amazing, and a significant example of the type of sharing economy that we are working toward. We're small, but we can help lead the way.
You can join us in making this dream a reality by shopping with us, donating materials to us, taking classes with us, volunteering with us, or becoming a ReBuilding Center member. Your gifts of time, talent, and financial resources will fuel our work toward climate justice. Thank you!
Working Towards Climate Justice