“It was all Dan. He was the visionary…”

Priscilla says as she guides me around the huge warehouse facilities. It almost feels like a flea market with the organization of Costco. “Just a few years ago we used to be a series of piles of miscaleanous goods up for grabs. Now we have sections, departments, labels. It’s come a long way.”

A long way is an understatement. When Dan first conceptualized Urban Ore in the 1980’s, he had a habit of parking at a Berkeley dump and cutting off people from the throwing away perfectly fine clothes, toys, appliances, and anything else that “simply worked.” His mission statement—“To End the Age of Waste”—is not theoretical or metaphorical; it’s a very real, concrete goal to educate people and help end the age of hyper consumption.

In recent years, Urban Ore has received significant press: from social media, to Berkeley blogs, to write ups in New York Times. Millenials in particular seem to care more  than previous generations about the “no waste” concept and, if Urban Ore’s success is any indication, make more of an effort to recycle and reuse certain necessities. Even local teachers come to Urban Ore regularly to pick up school supplies. 

Perhaps surprisingly, Urban Ore is a for-profit company, and employees receive lots of perks and incentives. When it comes to the general public, the only consistently negative feedback has to do with the sometimes high cost of items that would have otherwise been thrown away, and the staff generally stands firm on pricing. Nevertheless, Urban Ore still gets reasonably heavy traffic in the south Berkeley location near I-80. In Priscilla’s words, “[Urban Ore] draws from the heart”.

When asked to estimate the amount of waste saved from  area dumps, Dan said: “[...]today it runs between about 200 to 250 tons per quarter. Three salvagers, part of a group of six or seven specialists, rotate through shifts at the dump tippling floor.  They bring home between 2.5 and 6 tons per day.” But that’s not even counting the volume they deal with at their “mothership.” Dan believe[s] that [Urban Ore’s] overall tonnage from all sources is around 7,000 to 8,000 tons per year.”

It’s inevitable that some things can’t be salvaged, though. “In 2015 we sent just 70 tons to the dump, which is an indication of how deeply our employees observe and support our zero waste goals.  We do a very good job with reuse, and if things can’t be reused we’re good at preparing them for recycling.  We share the zero waste goal with the city and with all other Berkeley recycling workers and enterprises.” It’s clear that Urban Ore tries every route available to them  to prevent waste.

Rumors of  Dan’s retirement  are exaggerated. When asked during the tour, Priscilla laughed and said “even after I’ve working here for 15 he always comes into meetings with new ideas and totally out of left field thoughts. So he maybe is saying retirement but he’s still trucking with constant ideas.” 

Whatever the future holds, Urban Ore’s commitment to recycling and reuse is admirable—the right idea at the right time. As mass consumption’s effects on the environment become ever clearer, we can only hope that other conscientious businesses take notice.