Trash at University of Minnesota's ReUse Program warehouse could be your treasure

Ask Todd Tanner if he's got anything weird stashed at the University of Minnesota's ReUse warehouse, and on this particular Thursday, he points out the babies.

That is, medical training mannequins of the brand "Resusci-Baby," stuffed into suitcases. At least these actually came in containers; one time, a shipment of training dolls arrived unsecured in a truck, and "it was mounds of body parts, torsos, legs."

"You've got to be prepared for anything," said Tanner, the school's Zero Waste Program coordinator.

The ReUse Program warehouse, operating since 2005 in the Como neighborhood of Minneapolis, is a central holding area for all of the armchairs, desks, clothes, bikes, beakers, books, bird cages, power sanders and anything else that is discarded at the U but could have a second life.

Inside, shelving towers over central aisles with no real themes or organization, rows where shoppers are as likely to find a box of old bowling shoes ($2 a pair), an off-brand controller for the original Xbox ($6), a 2,000-milliliter Erlenmeyer flask ($10) and a decades-old metal scale for weighing mail parcels ($75). The atmosphere is a mash-up of furniture warehouse, hardware store and antique mall, with a little mad scientist thrown in.

Two days a week, on Thursdays and Saturdays, the public is welcomed to rummage through the shelves and bins. Many shoppers are repeat customers, like Dan Brethorst, who said he stops in every few weeks.

Brethorst was looking for containers he could use to catch sap from tapped maple trees, but he had bought a bevy of items over the years: skis and poles, a pressure washer, a polisher for telescope lenses, and a snowblower.

The broad array of scientific equipment discarded from the U's labs is also appealing to customers like David Liang, a protein chemist who runs the company MinneBio and stops in at least once a month.

"It's pretty cheap, compared with buying new stuff," Liang said. He had picked up a $15 pipette filler, and was perusing a collection of laboratory glassware.

It was far from the only scientific equipment on offer: at least three centrifuges, ranging from $75 to $180, were located on the sales floor.

Some customers were looking to make something completely new with their finds. Bridget McGreevy, a mixed-media artist who lives in St. Paul, was picking up some glass vials (10 cents each) for an Art Shanties project she was working on with friends.

"I like old things, I like obscure things," she said. "I use them in my art."

She had made more practical purchases in the past too, like shelving for her art studio.

The ReUse warehouse opens to U staff on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with a primary goal of diverting materials from a landfill or incinerator, Tanner said. University departments don't pay to reuse these items. The prices the general public pays are typically 20% of the retail cost for a similar item.

The center doesn't take a traditional inventory, but it does track the weight of what it sells. Between July 2021 and June 2022, it sold 337 tons of goods to the public (bringing in $345,189); and returned almost 41 tons to the U.

In all, the U's Twin Cities campus incinerates about 4,000 tons of solid waste in a year, and 3,000 more are diverted through efforts like reuse and recycling, Tanner said.

Sometimes it also offers special sales events, like the spring bike sale. Bikes are first held at the warehouse for any owners who might be missing theirs. If nobody claims them, the ReUse Program works with two local shops, Full Cycle and Mr. Michael Recycles Bicycles, to refurbish the bikes and offer them in a one-day event, Tanner said.

And, older goods often last longer. Tanner gave the example of metal desks that often show up, which the staff call "tanker" desks for their durability.

"Materials that are made and sold today are not as good of quality," Tanner said. "Ikea desks are not going to be in this warehouse in 30 years, but tanker desks from 1950 are."