A worker at a small Minnesota factory said the factory sends more than 200 pounds of clean, natural rubber to the landfill every week. They asked the internet for help with recycling the rubber waste.

In a Reddit post in the forum r/Anticonsumption, the original poster described their company's ongoing waste problem in New London, Minnesota. They attached a photo of them gripping a handful of the rubber with a mountain of excess in the background.

According to the post, the discarded material is not dirty or mixed with trash. Instead, it is clean trim from the edges of stamp sheets. 

"It's soft, natural red rubber, no dirt, no contamination," the OP wrote in the caption. 

Even so, the business said it has struggled to find buyers or recyclers willing to take it.

In the Reddit post, the OP said that they had already approached potential users, including mulch recyclers, playground surfacing companies, and makerspaces, but "nobody wants it."

The OP said they would mail out as much as people want for about $1 USD per pound in shipping costs. They hoped people would repurpose the material instead of it going to a landfill.

This is not a case of contaminated material or mystery trash. This rubber is usable and has second-life applications without the excessive microplastics and chemicals often found in rubber mulch or artificial turf.

It also highlights a broader problem in the waste system. Many recycling channels are built around high-volume, standardized materials, not smaller specialty streams from individual manufacturers.

When reusable materials are thrown away because no viable recovery system exists, valuable resources are lost, and disposal costs rise. Landfills take on more bulk, and businesses are often left with little choice but to keep paying to toss materials that may still have value.

As one commenter put it, "having a single manufacturer find a waste recycling pipeline is infinitely more impactful."

The discussion also left some readers surprised by the scale of the waste. One commenter wrote, "dang 200+lb a week for small company makes me not want to think about the large corporations. Sigh!"

The good news is that the post also became a crowdsourcing session for possible solutions.

Suggestions ranged from horse arena footing to roofing and construction material, gaskets, packing filler, and art supplies.

One commenter even chimed in, saying, "I'm a scientist that works on rubber degradation! It would be awesome to have some of this rubber in addition to our waste tires."

"You are a rad human," another said.

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