Austin Creative Reuse (ACR) was established in 2009 as Austin’s first creative reuse center collecting, processing, and re-selling new and used creative materials donated from individuals and businesses. Now the largest creative reuse organization in Texas and one of the largest in the Country, ACR has kept more than 1.9 million pounds of usable materials out of landfills.

Research shows that 94% of public school teachers pay for school supplies out of their own pockets. With the Impact Austin grant, ACR will launch Materials Mobile, a cargo van retrofitted as a mobile pop-up where busy K-12 educators will “shop” for new and gently used classroom supplies at little to no cost – bringing high quality, reuse supplies directly to them. 

ACR’s first-year goal is to complete a minimum of 85 visits to Central Texas schools, reaching 850+ educators, with at least 65% of the school visits made to economically disadvantaged schools. ACR estimates a first-year total of $144,000 in savings for educators, schools and families, and could potentially offset nearly $1.5 million in spending by educators and families over ten years.