Live resourcefully with resourcePhilly!

The resourcePhilly online platform is a one-stop-shop to assist people in the Philadelphia region with how and where to donate reusable materials, rehome and repair belongings, take their hard-to-recycle items and shop secondhand, bulk, sustainable, and circular products.

The Resource Exchange, Philadelphia’s Center for Creative Reuse, started resourcePhilly to help guide residents towards local reuse and recycling solutions for many commonly landfilled materials. For over a decade, their staff has researched and maintained a map and referral list of vetted local businesses and organizations, displayed at the entrance to their shop, on their website, and sent out to thousands of donors and customers. At local events, the resourcePhilly map was also used offsite as a community engagement activity to help educate and encourage sustainability in the local community. 

In 2024, Circular Philadelphia, a Philly-based non-profit cultivating a low-waste, regenerative economy in the Philadelphia region, received a grant to partner with The Resource Exchange to expand resourcePhilly. This updated version is a now an online search engine with a broader database, and the regional map is now interactive. It also includes educational content ranging from conserving the resources needed to make new products to how saving the embodied energy of many materials impacts climate change. By continuing to grow resourcePhilly, more Philadelphia area residents and businesses can find a way to participate in the circular economy and help reduce the over 3 million tons of waste that Southeast Pennsylvania burns and buries each year.