2023: A SCRAPITALIST SUCCESS STORY

Over 2023, our team has been hard at work rebuilding, clearing and resurfacing at The Scrap Exchange. Here are some accomplishments we feel particularly proud of:

  • Raised TSE’S wage floor from $13/hr to $15/hr

  • Diverted over 300,000 lbs of materials from the landfill

  • Built our team up from an essential staff of 15 in 2021 to 45 team members today

  • Increased our annual retail sales by over 10%

  • Established a new Board of Directors with seats for local artists, movement workers, former employees, waste management specialists, urban development strategists, and community organizers

  • Restored community partnerships for outreach programming and on-site workshops

  • Revived our commodities programs to divert more industrial waste toward creative reuse

  • Revitalized our Artist Marketplace in collaboration with over 30 local artists

  • Reached 100% occupancy with community-centered organizations and businesses in SCRAP’s 12-acre corner of the Lakewood shopping center

  • Brought back SmashFest!!!

  • Little-by-little, continued to make shifts in the working environment to be one that supports working parents, creatives and folks living with disabilities

  • Partnered with local community to spread scrap magic, including:

    Art Ain’t Innocent, Autism Support and Advocacy Center, Durham Pride, Durham Public Schools, Duke Arts, Ellerbee Creek Watershed Association, El Futuro, Feed Durham, LGBTQ Center of Durham, Neighborhood Improvement Services, Liberty Arts, and more