I found a cool recycling place in Brisbane, Australia called Reverse Garbage. What a great name for a thrift shop. But this thrift shop is more like “Salvation Army meets Habitat for Humanity ReStores”.
They encourage you to buy by the bag and weight.
A friend told me that her architectural firm has bins for Reverse Garbage to come and pick up commercial samples such as tiles, carpets, ceramics and countertops.
Some really weird stuff you just don’t see at every second-hand shop.
The neat part is that they collect industrial discards thus saving companies lots in disposal fees.
The goods look less like donations and more like salvations.
They sell everything direct to the public for use in art and craft projects, home and garden improvements and anything else their ingenious customers come up with!
They run environmental education workshops in schools, festivals, and community groups and at their urban environmental education facility located in their warehouse.
Their website lists everything that they sell. My favorite subcategory would be New Stuff.
Even old picture framing matboard corner samples!
Part of the store is a Reverse Gift shop and Gallery, called Reverse Emporium which stocks high quality art, jewellery, and home decor. All items are up-cycled from salvaged materials, making them perfect eco-gifts.
Sort of an Etsy retail storefront where they sell items on a consignment basis with a 50% mark-up on the artist’s asking price.
- All items submitted must be made up of 75% salvaged materials (this means materials can be pre loved, recycled, reused, reclaimed and up-cycled)
- All items must be finished to a high standard and suitable for sale
- Wholesale prices should not exceed $120 per item
I enjoyed seeing the creativity and success they are having.
Have you been to a store like this?
Evelyn Ward de Roo 
What did this post stir up in you?