October 2, 2024

Stasher Sale

🎃 Halloween Costume Swap: October 8-19 🎃

From October 8-19, you can bring in gently used costumes and trade them for something new-to-you. Check in with BYOC Co. staff at the front counter to “donate” any items and find the table loaded with spooky or silly costumes to find a swap. 

Swap Guidelines:

• Costumes must be clean and in good condition (no rips or stains).
• Accessories welcome (masks, hats, props).
• Limit of 3 costumes “donated” per person.
• All ages and sizes accepted!

National Reuse Day

Celebrate National Reuse Day on October 20! SCRAP Creative Reuse is offering so much throughout the month so mark your calendars for all of these happenings:

Kerrytown Happenings

On Saturday, October 5 the BYOC Kerrytown station will be closed for the day.

Come visit us on Sunday, October 6 for any refills of the staple household products. Any orders for pickup at the Kerrytown station will only be available on Sunday this week. Thanks for understanding!

Sunday, October 13 will be a fall open house for all of Kerrytown Market and Shops. Come by for special discounts and offerings from each shop and stroll through the Artisan Market and support local artists and artisans.

Reflections from the 4th annual Trash Talk Tour

This past Sunday I was able to tour Recycle Ann Arbor’s Material Recovery Facility (MRF pronounced like “murph”) before I drove over to the Kiwanis Zero Waste Festival to host a BYOC table in conjunction with the annual Trash Talk Tour. The mission of Trash Talk Tour is to educate community members and showcase ways to effect a zero waste lifestyle, as well as the obstacles to doing so. To connect community members with others who are trying to reduce our community’s contribution to landfills. 

The tour of the MRF, along with conversations with not only the COO of Recycle Ann Arbor but also the drivers, sorters, and balers, was a powerful reminder of how fortunate we are to have such a dedicated organization and team in our community working to divert waste from landfills. These humans are sorting 18-22 TONS of material every hour they are operating. Like BYOC, they are committed to knowing where our waste is headed and continuing to support local vendors. As of May 1st, 2023, BYOC’s refillable products are 61% closed loop, meaning we receive quantities of one gallon containers to 30 gallon drums, sell the product inside, return those containers for cleaning by the manufacturer, and receive new product in the same containers. When we opened in 2021, we were at 20% closed loop and improved to 52% closed loop in 2022. For refillable products not on a closed loop, we find every way to reuse the containers until the end of their life and then research recycling options.

Although not everyone who visits BYOC has the same recycling resources (curbside services) and ability to visit any of the locations (Recovery Yard or Drop Off Station), we can all be conscious of what we are purchasing, consuming, where it might be going, and how long it will be there. We can also continue to advocate for extended producer responsibility and supporting closed-loop systems. We can get too comfortable “wish-cycling” and leaning into the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality with our waste. And I’d love to remind you that it’s not WHAT is sorting our trash, it’s WHO and every time you don’t take a moment to check the website to see if something is recyclable, the more potential for hazards (ie. batteries) and a chance our consumables might not have a second life. And that's some seriously spooky stuff...