Southeast Creative Reuse Collective Holds Largest Gathering Yet

GREENVILLE, S.C. - The Southern Creative Reuse Collective held its largest-ever conference this month in Greenville, a sign of growing interest in upcycling and repurposing to advance sustainability, support creativity, and make art more accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds.

Hosted by ReCraft Creative Reuse Center at its Greenville store from Oct. 17-19, the third-annual conference brought together 23 organizations from across the Southeast.

Creative reuse centers divert unwanted, gently used art supplies from landfills by providing them to artists, educators, families, and community members for creative projects. By seeking and accepting donations and offering them at affordable prices, the organizations give those unwanted materials a second life.

Founded in 2024, the Southeast Creative Reuse Collective connects organizations throughout the region, helping them share resources, exchange ideas, and support one another’s work.

The collaboration helps members strengthen their individual organizations while expanding the collective impact of creative reuse across the Southeast.

Organizations represented at the summit included :

·       Art and Soul - Radford, Va.

·       Art Again - Winchester, Va.

·       Conway Creates: Conway, S.C.

·       Dabble Creative Reuse Center - Manassas, Va.

·       Reconsidered Goods - Greensboro, N.C.

·       ReCraft Creative Reuse - Greenville, S.C.

·       Remix It- Asheville, N.C.

·       Scrap Collective - Roanoke, Va.

·       Scrap Exchange - Durham, N.C.

·       S.C.R.A.P. - Spartanburg, S.C.

·       Scraplanta - Atlanta, Ga.

·       Second Life Supply - Charleston, S.C.

·       Smart Art +Craft Supplies - Nashville, T.N.

·       Starlandia - Savannah, Ga.

·       Sunshine Creative Reuse - Brevard, N.C.

·       The Art SHAC - Winston-Salem, N.C.

·       The Crafty Krab - Wilmington, N.C.

·       The Craft Room-Homewood, Ala.

·       The Scrappy Elephant - Charlottesville, Va.

·       Upcycle Arts - Charlotte, N.C.

·       Valley Creative Reuse - Harrisonburg, Va.

·       Waste Knot Orlando - Orlando, Fl.

·       757 Creative Reuse Center-Norfolk, Va.

Hear Together: Scrap Collective Creative Reuse Center

Scrap Collective Creative Reuse Center is a nonprofit in Roanoke working to inspire creativity, environmental stewardship, and community engagement. 

Scrap Collective diverts reusable materials from landfills through donations and makes those resources available through their storehouse and community workshops. Materials from their storehouse and admission to their workshops are pay-what-you-can.

Proceeds from storehouse sales support their mission to keep reusable materials out of the trash and support equitable access to their programs. They welcome you to learn more about their work and how you can contribute. 

Listen to our snippet HERE.

Reuse Plastic to Create Art

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - What is plarn? Plastic shopping bags reused as a yarn!

Amanda Barbee is the Director of Operations at Scrap Collective Creative Reuse Center. She joins us on Here @ Home to talk about how they reuse many materials to make crafts. In the 7 months they’ve been open, they have diverted over 9,000 pounds of usable items from the landfill.

In this visit, she shows us how to make plarn, and how she uses it in her workshops to make things like plarn cordage, reusable market baskets and a plarn plant holder. Watch our demonstration and be sure to join them on August 28th for their next workshop!

Find more online at ScrapCollective.org

Repurposing Items to Create Arts & Crafts

Creative Reuse Center Aims to Repurpose Materials to Keep Out of Landfill

2026 Summer Camp Sneak Peek

This is a video of the Camps we have planned for this Summer! Thanks for watch, we hope to see your creative young ones this Summer!