BkCory via Deposit Photos / Courtesy RepurposedMaterialsDamon Carson has one of the more interesting inboxes in America. On any given day, from his office in Denver, Colorado, he will field myriad inquiries from people looking to unload stuff. We’re not talking about the odd consumer trying to dispense with an old refrigerator, or a bagful of out-of-fashion clothing.
The person who will know what to do with a bunch of ceramic paper is probably the one who knew what it was for in the first place. And so Carson either needs to find that person, or to try to suss out possible uses for the material—often through his network of clients.
After tripling the company’s business in four years, he sold it to the nationwide corporation Waste Management. With the proceeds, he bought some coin-operated laundromats and invested in some trailer-park developments. “I kind of like the ugly in business, you know, the non-sexy,” he says. None of these particularly flourished. All the while, something in the recesses of his mind haunted him.
There is, of course, a solid environmental case for repurposing. “When people call, I say we don’t chip, shred, grind, melt,” Carson notes. Recycling, however noble, still takes energy; one estimate found it takes slightly less than half the BTUs of energy to manufacture something from recycled materials than make it anew. “Why grind something up, why melt something down, if it still has value?” he asks.