From Billboard to Reuse Revolution: The Story Behind Repurposed Materials

• Repurposed materials convert industrial garbage, such as old billboards, into useful artefacts, keeping 130,000 tonnes (260 million pounds) of waste out of landfills.
• Believing in making “waste” products useful, Damon Carson’s selling art has flourished into a six-location business promoting environmental thinking and innovative reuse solutions.

Back in 2010, Damon Carson had a conversation he would never forget. An airbrush artist mentioned old billboard vinyl, the type of vinyl that advertisers plaster along highways. Shilling Budweiser, Coca-Cola, and the flavour of the moment. They would make perfect drop cloths for his painting, he added. This mundane exchange in conversation was more than that to Carson—something switched within him, and the concept of repurposed materials was born.

A Simple Idea Turned into a Movement

The next day, Carson started calling Denver billboard sales companies. After many calls, one of the companies agreed to sell Carson 20 retired vinyl billboards. He put them on Craigslist, only to see them get sold quickly. This was the final moment for Carson when he realised he was moving up to something that could potentially turn big.

Wastes had long attracted Carson. In the late ’90s, he ran a garbage pickup business in Vail and Breckenridge, Colorado, where he saw many good “throwaway” items go to waste. “It was my Reese’s moment when the chocolate met the peanut butter,” Carson said, emphasising how the waste management aspect collided beautifully with his idea to remake.

Building Repurposed MATERIALS from The Bottom

The initial posting gave a lot of success to Carson, who likes to think of repurposed materials today as an industrial thrift store. This store’s six locations exist across the country. The following are located in Colorado, South Carolina, Arizona, Iowa, Texas, and Ohio. These are not run-of-the-mill thrift stores. Instead, it is a warehouse full of industrial by-products, surplus materials, and idle equipment.

They are like lumberyards, only much more diverse. Old billboard vinyl, whisky barrels, conveyor belts, fire hoses, synthetic grass turf, and this 3/8-inch-thick, 8×8-foot stainless-steel tank that we bought from Pepsi. “I mean, we have materials of all shapes and sizes and styles neatly stacked up,” Carson explained.

Repurposing Versus Recycling: What’s The Difference?

When discussing the distinction between repurposing and recycling, Carson wasted no time distinguishing the two. If you recycle something, it all gets melted down and goes back to a raw form for new products, using tonnes of energy. But if you repurpose a thing, you are finding ways to reuse the existing form of it.

“Some possibilities of repurposing could be to make, for example, boat dock fenders from life-expired fire hoses or fish habitat and cattle feed from dried-up Christmas trees—if you’ve ever got them,” says Carson. “The worst is just to bury it in a front gutter landfill,” he added. “A little better option is to burn it as a source of energy. Recycling is a good idea. But also giving an object that has very little value in your own eyes an extended useful life is probably the preferred choice.”

The People Behind the Cause

The outset of repurposed materials was marked with the arrival of individuals with burning environmental zeal: Kiara Proano, the marketing director who joined the team in 2021, speaks of the business’s environmental impact. “I find a lot of value in buying things used or refurbished,” she opened, “rather than just buying a bunch of that stuff we call ‘new.'”

Her associate, Marketing Coordinator Sean Murphy, thinks alike. “It’s simply about the impact for me—how much waste we’re not throwing into landfills,” Murphy revitalised.

The People Behind the Cause

The outset of repurposed materials was marked with the arrival of individuals with burning environmental zeal: Kiara Proano, the marketing director who joined the solution to the growing issue.

The world needs more businesses like reinvented MATERIALS than ever. A report produced by Eco-Cycle and the CoPIRG Foundation asserted that Colorado produced over 6.8 million tonnes of waste in 2023. However, Colorado’s recycling rate was still just 15.5%, a decline from 17.2% in 2018. There is still quite a distance to go.

But repurposed MATERIALS is bringing about some change. Now, the company website boasts about 15.5 million pounds saved from the landfill just this year, adding up to well above a quarter of a million pounds in all. In 2021, it speaks of the business’s environmental impact. “I find a lot of value in buying things used or refurbished,” she opened, “rather than just buying a bunch of that stuff we call ‘new.'”

Her associate, Marketing Coordinator Sean Murphy, thinks alike. “It’s simply about the impact for me—how much waste we’re not throwing into landfills,” Murphy revitalised.

Creativity Knows No Boundaries

Notably, the most interesting aspect of Carson’s businesses is watching individuals use their discretionary creativity on his products. Repurposed MATERIALS has two opposing customer extremes from NASA or Google to Michael Jordan or YouTubers Dude Perfect. Even Ted Turner of CNN fame got tired of the retired street sweeper brushes—special back-scratchers for his bison on his ranch.

David Ross, a financial adviser hailing from California, was appreciative of repurposed materials, hailing it as his solution to the affordable outdoor stage upon hosting a jazz performance. ” Upon seizing rubber mat flooring and cargo used in wingsuits or other sports parachutes, he transformed them into a backdrop that was a lesson in what to do with it. “I felt like I was smart and creative. It was much cheaper than buying something new,” Ross said.

More Than Just a Business—It’s a Mindset

Using repurposing is not just about making money for Carson. It’s about making people consciously remember waste. “Reuse is not a new concept,” said Rachel Setzke, senior policy and research associate at Eco-Cycle. “Many of us grew up mending clothes and shopping at thrift stores, but new companies are finding innovative ways to make reuse a mainstream consensus.”

Carson, he said, hoped that repurposed materials would somehow inspire others to look at waste differently. His evolution from some enjoyment in a billboard vinyl conversation to running a very successful six-location company demonstrates that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

Who knows? Next time, one might stop by an old billboard on the roadside and wonder how it must feel to get another shot at life.