Mallory Gruben
Jessi Just shares the backstory of the vintage CARTM Recycling shirts that will hang on the history wall in the group’s new space.
Continued from Page 8
heart, down to its raw pieces, and building
something new out of it,” said Jessi Just,
the former operations manager of CARTM
Recycling and the new board president for
Heart of CARTM.
Heart of CARTM encourages peo-
ple to save reusable items from the landfill
by recycling and reusing them. The group
offers workshops to teach people how to
create recycled art or repurpose old fur-
niture. All of the classes focus on adding
value back to items that might traditionally
be seen as trash, such as old side tables or
couches.
“We don’t need to have all this waste in
our community,” Just said. There are peo-
ple who need it. There are ways to use it
again.There is value in these discards.”
The group also sells repurposed pieces,
recycled building materials, donated dis-
cards and office supplies from their
storefront.
When operating at the Manzanita trans-
fer station, the group provided recycling and
other waste management services. It could
directly set aside any usable items brought
to the transfer station for the on-site thrift
store, instead of sending them to the dump.
Although Heart of CARTM will no lon-
ger operate the transfer station, Just said the
nonprofit is identical to CARTM Recycling.
The only difference is a new location and a
“change in perception,” Just said.
Residents in Manzanita and the sur-
rounding communities saw CARTM and the
transfer station as synonymous, but that was
never really the case. The transfer station is
owned by Tillamook County, and CARTM
operated there on a contract with the county.
“Without operating the transfer sta-
tion, that slightly changes our mission,
and it changes how we talk about what we
do,” Just said. “We are not CARTM Recy-
cling anymore. We aren’t necessarily asso-
ciated with transfer stations and waste and
recycling. We are more … associated with
inspiring creative reuse.”
CARTM’s new home, fondly named the
Office of Reimagination, will pay homage
to the organization’s past and encourage
the community to become part of its future.
One wall of the space will be dedicated to
Heart of CARTM
395 Nehalem Blvd, Wheeler
Open Friday through Monday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
971-389-8414
the history of CARTM. It will include pho-
tos, documents and other information about
CARTM’s first two decades at the transfer
station.
A craft table in the office will always
offer a project for visitors to work on.
“Come in, sit down and play with oth-
ers,” Just said. “It feels like a place where
really, really great ideas are going to inspire
action. We want the community to be part of
rebuilding the Heart of CARTM.”
For now, the nonprofit will operate on
a limited capacity during “extended week-
ends” on Fridays through Sundays. The
shop will stock just a few items at a time,
and CARTM will ask the community for
specific donations, instead of accepting gen-
eral drop offs.
“Our (new) building is shared with a cou-
ple of other businesses, and we just don’t
have the space for people to park and to
manage (donation drop offs), quite frankly,”
Just said.
People can make monetary donations or
sign up to volunteer in the shop online at
heartofcartm.org. The group also is open
to discussing land donations or rentals that
would allow CARTM to expand into a
larger warehouse and workshop space in
Manzanita, Nehalem or Wheeler.
“The great vision is that we will have a
workshop for people to be actively upcy-
cling and transforming things,” Just said.
“The faster we can find the property to make
that happen, the quicker we can keep that
stuff out of the landfill.”
Much like CARTM intends to save
items from going to the landfill, Just said
that returning as the Heart of CARTM was
one way to ensure the organization and
its nonprofit status did not become “waste
products.”
“That’s almost the most fascinating piece
that I see,” Just said. “We are essentially
going through our own transformation and
our own recycling process.”
THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 2021 // 9