Parents in Ann Arbor, Michigan, frustrated by school wrapping paper drives that brought in little money, decided to build a different kind of fundraiser, CBS News Detroit reported.
Here's what to know
According to CBS News Detroit, the idea took shape in the early 1990s when families in the Ann Arbor Public Schools district started looking for a more worthwhile alternative to traditional school fundraising.
Founding member Janet Fritsch shared, "One of the women I was friends with had a sister in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where the school district had a thrift shop where all of the money went back to the school system. So, we kind of investigated that idea."
The result was the Ann Arbor PTO Thrift Shop, a nonprofit that now operates out of a more than 22,000-square-foot location and has 36 employees. Its sales floor spans furniture, books, toys, jewelry, kitchenware, clothing, and a separate higher-end space called "The Showcase."
The shop has raised more than $3.8 million for PTOs serving each of the district's 33 schools.
More background
The shop's impact is far-reaching, general manager Paulette Brown said. Unsellable items are increasingly being recycled instead of thrown away, which has reduced how often its dumpster needs service.
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"We've gone from having a dumpster serviced three times a week to only once," Brown said. "So, we are finding ways to recycle things more and more, and it's really great to see that drop in things going to the landfill."
How does the store work?
Community members donate goods they no longer want, workers sort and ready those items for resale, and the proceeds go back to area schools.
Brown said the staff's attention to each donation is what makes the system work.
"Our staff is excellent," Brown said. "They're the people who diligently touch everything that comes in, everything that's donated. And it's their dedication and, like I said, diligence in finding the good in order to turn it into something that is sellable on the floor."
Supporters have been engaged for decades. Donor Nancy Burns told CBS News Detroit she has dropped off items three times a year for the past 25 years.
"All the money goes to the schools," Burns said. "It's great."
"I really love everything about it," Fritsch added. "The donors are just unbelievably generous. From all of that, we're able to reuse, recycle and resell almost everything so that it can benefit the students of the Ann Arbor Public Schools."
If you want to make more of those choices in daily life, it's important to support eco-friendly initiatives by your favorite brands.
Where can I learn more?
Other efforts show how people are reworking ordinary systems everywhere to cut waste.
• At ShopRite, a plastic-film packaging recycling program made it easier for customers to cut waste.
• Patagonia expanded non-forest packaging alternatives through a nonprofit partnership aimed at reducing shipping waste.
• Dutch grocer Albert Heijn introduced store-brand bottles made with PEF instead of conventional plastic.
Like Ann Arbor's thrift shop, these stories show that handling materials more thoughtfully can keep a lot of waste out of landfills and benefit people in other unexpected ways.
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