Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

inbound

Repurposed Materials Inc. finds new homes for old industrial materials

Company's customers creatively repurpose surplus items, including totes, pallets, and conveyor belting.

Repurposed Materials Inc. says it is not a recycler. Instead, CEO Dan Creacy prefers the term "industrial matchmaker." The company's mission is to bring together waste or unusable material and people who have ideas on how to repurpose it. We're not just talking about grimy old junk here (although there's plenty of that); Repurposed Materials' operation has enough cachet that it has even been featured in Oprah Winfrey's O magazine.

The company will sell almost any kind of unwanted industrial products, including material handling equipment. For instance, a recent check of its website found 275-gallon IBC totes, used bulk shipping bags, plastic pallets, and conveyor belting.


Customers reuse the items they've bought in creative ways. Examples include turning giant mining equipment tires into livestock-watering stations, concrete utility pads into ballast for empty truck trailers, and rubber roofing membrane and "retired" vinyl billboard ads into cargo covers for flatbed trucks. One customer wrote in to say he was using old conveyor belts to build feeding stations for dairy calves, while another was using the belting to protect the bottoms of snowplow blades.

Repurposed Materials Inc. is headquartered in Denver and has an operation near Chicago. The company is looking to expand to Atlanta.

The Latest

More Stories

containers stacked at a port

Supply chain execs wary of three trends in 2025, Moody’s says

Three issues ranking at top of mind for supply chain executives in 2025 will be supply chain restrictions, reputational risk, and quantifying risk exposure, according to Moody’s, a global integrated risk assessment firm.

Each of those points could have a stark impact on business operations, the firm said. First, supply chain restrictions will continue to drive up costs, following examples like European tariffs on Chinese autos and the U.S. plan to prevent Chinese software and hardware from entering cars in America.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

youngster checking shipping details on smartphone

Survey: older generations are unaware of holiday shipping deadlines

As holiday shoppers blitz through the final weeks of the winter peak shopping season, a survey from the postal and shipping solutions provider Stamps.com shows that 40% of U.S. consumers are unaware of holiday shipping deadlines, leaving them at risk of running into last-minute scrambles, higher shipping costs, and packages arriving late.

The survey also found a generational difference in holiday shipping deadline awareness, with 53% of Baby Boomers unaware of these cut-off dates, compared to just 32% of Millennials. Millennials are also more likely to prioritize guaranteed delivery, with 68% citing it as a key factor when choosing a shipping option this holiday season.

Keep ReadingShow less
shopper returning purchase with smartphone

E-commerce retailers brace for surge in returns

As shoppers prepare to receive—and send back—a surge of peak season e-commerce orders this month, returns will continue to pose a significant cost for the retail industry, with total returns projected to reach $890 billion in 2024, according to a report released today by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Happy Returns, a UPS company.

Measured over the entire year of 2024, retailers estimate that 16.9% of their annual sales will be returned. But that total figure includes a spike of returns during the holidays; a separate NRF study found that for the 2024 winter holidays, retailers expect their return rate to be 17% higher, on average, than their annual return rate.

Keep ReadingShow less
screenshot of agentic AI for logistics

HappyRobot lands $15.6 million backing for its agentic AI

San Francisco startup HappyRobot has gained $15.6 million in venture funding for its AI platform that automates the communication needs of freight brokerages and other logistics users such as third-party logistics providers and warehouses.

The “series A” round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from Y Combinator and strategic industry investors, including RyderVentures. It follows an earlier, previously undisclosed, pre-seed round raised 1.5 years ago, that was backed by Array Ventures and other angel investors.

Keep ReadingShow less
forklift carrying goods through a warehouse

RJW Logistics gains private equity backing

RJW Logistics Group, a logistics solutions provider (LSP) for consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, has received a “strategic investment” from Boston-based private equity firm Berkshire partners, and now plans to drive future innovations and expand its geographic reach, the Woodridge, Illinois-based company said Tuesday.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the company said that CEO Kevin Williamson and other members of RJW management will continue to be “significant investors” in the company, while private equity firm Mason Wells, which invested in RJW in 2019, will maintain a minority investment position.

Keep ReadingShow less