What we run
Four ways the city keeps its stuff.
Neighborhood drop-off
Eleven staffed sites across Metro Detroit taking glass, textiles, electronics and hard plastics — the things curbside bins refuse. Open six days, no appointment, no charge.
Repair cafe
Bring the broken thing. Volunteers fix it with you, and you leave knowing how.
Schools program
A six-week unit in 34 Detroit public schools: where a thing comes from, where it goes, and what a city can do about it.
Commercial diversion
Audits and hauling for restaurants, shops and small manufacturers who want their waste out of landfill and can't do it alone.
Last year
Eleven thousand tons that didn't go in a hole.
Every figure below is measured at the scale, audited annually, and published in full. We would rather be boring and correct.
How it works
Four steps, and none of them are yours to worry about.
You bring it
Drop it at any of the eleven sites, or leave it curbside on a collection week. Sorted or not — that part is our job.
We sort it
By material and by condition. Anything with life left in it goes to repair before it ever goes to recycling.
It gets remade
Glass to aggregate, textiles to insulation, electronics stripped for parts — with Michigan processors wherever one exists.
It comes back
Into Detroit buildings, Detroit workshops and Detroit classrooms. The circle closes inside the city it started in.
Voices
People who use it.
“I brought a vacuum I'd been told was dead. Two volunteers and forty minutes later it wasn't. It's still going.”
Marisol A. — Southwest Detroit
“Our restaurant's landfill bill dropped by two thirds.”
Dev P. — Eastern Market
“The kids sorted our whole staff room without being asked. Then they audited it.”
Ms. Okafor — Burton Elementary
“It is the only place in the city that takes the glass. That alone is worth it.”
Ray T. — Hamtramck
Get involved
Find the site nearest you.
Put in a ZIP code and we'll send the two closest drop-offs, their hours, and what they take. No newsletter unless you ask for one.