2024 was a banner year for putting reuse on the table.
Rheaply helped thousands of organizations save time and money by keeping items in use, combining smart inventory management with connected marketplaces, and creating magical moments where under-utilized assets found their next use (and avoided the landfill).
Behind these achievements are countless victories: items finding new life instead of being discarded, organizations reaching sustainability goals in their climate action plans, and leaders like you paving the way for a more sustainable future in our business world.
Here’s Rheaply’s year of reuse in review for 2024:
Those moments add up to something BIG—in 2024, our community moved 158,327 assets on to their next, best use. That averages to 630+ exchanges per working day!
All those exchanges totaled $17,492,416 in replacement value—that is to say that buying these items new instead of choosing reuse would’ve cost our customers more than $17 million!
That’s enough to buy an 800-acre private island in Costa Rica.
Cost avoidance is only half of the story. Our customers trusted us with $7,950,352 worth of donations to community groups and nonprofits in need.
Most valuable donation
117 workstation cubicles, worth $234,000, found new homes at the DeKalb County School District in Atlanta, GA
Most “paws-itive” impact
34,120 pounds of astroturf and carpet found a new home at the Alone No More Dog Rescue in Phoenix, AZ
Fastest donation
299 exchanges took less than one day from listing to order. This included a leg massager, mini fridge, Nespresso machine, and a 2011 Xbox 360
Reusing items makes a positive impact on the environment. Our vibrant community of customers, buyers, refurbishment and up-cycling partners, municipalities, nonprofits, and other ecosystem partners diverted 2,785,176 lbs from the landfill.
The Rheaply platform tracks the embodied carbon emissions our customers avoid through reuse, helping quantify their positive environmental impact. Last year, our community prevented 2,986,692 kg of carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere.
That’s the same as 697 gasoline-powered cars driven for an entire year.
One customer, in particular, led the pack in avoiding embodied carbon emissions: An energy company avoided emitting 890,692 kg of carbon through reuse on Rheaply in 2024.
Learn more about how we calculate embodied carbon in our reporting.
Accelerating the circular economy is a real RUSH
In 2024, RUSH University Medical Center doubled down on their commitment to building the circular economy with Rheaply by signing on to become our longest-tenured customer. Ian Hughes, RUSH’s Director of Sustainability, has led RUSH’s Rheaply transformation from a labware sharing tool to a vibrant marketplace for campus-wide reuse, including furniture. And the numbers don’t lie: Ian himself represents $100k in cost-avoidance for RUSH, and more than 60,000 people have viewed his video case study. For all these reasons and more, Rheaply named Ian Hughes the winner of our Circular Economy Hero Award for 2024!
Building a community where every workplace resource finds its next, best use requires strong partners. In 2024, our ecosystem grew significantly, with 1,450 organizations joining our free, public reuse marketplace and 36 enterprises purchasing Rheaply for the first time. We launched new reuse marketplaces in Seattle, Atlanta, Michigan, and North Central Texas, and we expanded to all of Chicagoland.
We also expanded beyond North America, enabling reuse programs in Ireland and Poland.
Members of the Rheaply team enjoy pints of Guinness in Dublin, Ireland after inventorying more than 5,000 items for a customer.
Ready to discuss how Rheaply can help with your reuse programs in Europe? Let’s talk!
Speaking of strong partners…
We started working with SUNY ESF and their Center for Sustainable Materials Management (CSMM) in the summer of 2024. They became our fast friends and a quick example of standout power users of the Rheaply platform, achieving 280 exchanges, more than $55,000 in cost savings, and diverting nearly 9,000 lbs from the landfill in their first 6 months. In October they were named to the Post Landfill Action Network (PLAN)’s list of the Top 10 Zero Waste Campuses in 2024. In December, Rheaply employees voted to award ESF with the Rheaply Innovator Award, recognizing a customer for using the platform in a creative or innovative way, recognizing ESF for their clever use of Collections links to market their listings and drive exchanges.
About CSMM
The mission of the CSMM is to inspire, lead, and connect a diverse group of people and organizations that will collectively challenge the concept of “waste,” through redefining and reimagining how we procure, produce, consume, manage, and market materials. CSMM is generously funded through the NYS Environmental Protection Fund and administered through the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.
We had the pleasure of getting to know 523 resource reuse enthusiasts at Circularity, CleanMed, IFMA World Workplace, and Greenbuild. Come find us at these conferences again in 2025!
Our CEO, Garry Cooper, spread the important message about ensuring every resource finds its next, best use far and wide in 2024. He took this message to the big stage at Circularity, IFMA World Workplace, GAME Change Conference, The ESF and Northeast Recycling Council Conference (NERC), and Climate Week NYC (whew!). He was also recognized as a top entrepreneur in Essence Magazine’s 2024 Power 40. Follow along with Garry’s updates by subscribing to his Sustainable Business Newsletter on LinkedIn, and check out his predictions for 2025.
Of course, none of this would be possible without the Rheaply platform, and in 2024, we launched new features to make it even easier to achieve your circularity goals:
Mobile inventorying
for on-the-go item management
Private teams & sharing groups
for tailored collaboration
Enhanced suggestions
and bulk tools to optimize item reuse
Item fulfillment & off-platform exchanges
to streamline collaboration
New reports
for deeper insights into your impact
