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| Travis, Kim, and puppy, Ellie |
While spending a Friday night at a local festival, I was happily surprised to find local Kansas Citians spreading the zero waste and sustainable living gospel. I mean, it seems as if environmentalism has become a very low priority in the Midwest or at least, it feels like it. This was about the time that I had really delve into my transition of zero waste so the excitement that filled me at the sight of someone else passionate and understanding of this lifestyle was almost too much to handle. I quickly hurried over to their booth where we all talked about our love for sustainability for a very, very long time.
Since then, we've became good friends, supporting each other on our unified quest to reduce waste and consumption. So enough about how it all began and more on Travis' story and his awesome company Roundhouse Exchange!
I started Roundhouse Exchange to make it easier to pursue a zero waste lifestyle in Kansas City. Our warehouse has an Exchange Center, a counter where customers can pick up orders, get items repaired, and return their items for material reclamation. We will scrap or compost many of our current products, but we also plan to consolidate high-value materials and return them directly to manufacturers for reuse. I believe that this improved industrial intelligence, combined with the efforts of zero waste practitioners, can get us started on a path towards a true zero landfill city.The idea for Roundhouse Exchange came about in 2009, while I was preparing for a summer architecture program at UC Berkeley and came across William McDonough’s book Cradle to Cradle. In it, he suggests that manufacturers would be incentivized to design products for reclamation if they could get their materials back directly (versus working with downcycled materials from other manufacturers’ products). After working for a small manufacturer for the past seven years, I believe the concept can work. Our goal at Roundhouse - in collaboration with our customers and manufacturers - is to put it into practice.- Travis Freeman
To celebrate this amazing store, I have partnered with Roundhouse Exchange to offer the chance for you to win your very own plastic free scrub brushes!
Enter for your chance to win:
- 1 dish brush
- 1 replacement head
- 1 pot brush
Don't forget to come back here and select the "I visited!" button once you've visited the Roundhouse KC facebook page!