RICHMOND, Ind. – The first-of-its-kind recycling hub in Wayne County is aiming to educate residents on how to reduce their carbon footprint, especially during the holiday season.

Penny Ausmus opened the East Central Indiana RE Hub in September 2024. The nonprofit offers recycling options beyond the city’s own program and has quickly become a resource for items that typically end up in the trash.

Ausmus’ interest in recycling began when she was a child. Today, she leads the Green Club at Centerville High School, a role she’s held since 2008. She’s also on the Family Earth Day Committee.

“I was one of the kids that rode her bike around, picked up glass bottles and cashed them in,” Ausmus said. As she grew older, she was drawn to climate-change reporting and noticed how few recycling options were available locally.

She also observed that many community recycling dumpsters were short-lived, often shut down after being overwhelmed by improper dumping.

“People dumped couches, TVs, garbage,” she said.

The turning point came two years ago when Ausmus stumbled across the Cincinnati Recycling and Reuse Hub on Facebook. After visiting, she was struck by how quickly the operation had grown.

“They started right after the pandemic on one floor of an old factory. And when I went down there, they were on four floors of an old factory,” she said. “It was two and a half years ago when I went down there and I fell in love.”

That visit inspired what would become Wayne County’s first recycling hub. The hub started at a smaller location before moving to an old factory just off North Eighth Street near the Depot District, with 10,000 square feet. After a little more than a year into operation, it is already planning a 5,000-square-foot expansion, expected for early 2026. This past year, the site saved 16 tons from the landfill.

The RE Hub accepts a mix of traditional recyclables as well as items typically destined for landfills, including furniture and books.

Accepted items include cardboard, ink cartridges, cell phones, CDs and cases, VHS tapes, computer accessories, household batteries, eyeglasses, plastic bread clips, aluminum cans, bubble wrap, brown kraft packing paper, Styrofoam, shoes, and tennis shoes. Shelves throughout the building display reusable items including Christmas décor, lamps, and more. The public is welcome to come in and purchase items.

“I tell people before you throw something away, ask, is there more life in it? Can it be reused? And if you answer yes, bring it here and see if we'll shelve it,” Ausmus said. “And then we let the public in here to shop and then we ask them to stop, and we weigh it before it goes out. We charge a dollar a pound.”

Typically, Ausmus relies on around eight to ten volunteers a week to help, though the number varies and some weeks, it can be less. With the expansion underway, Ausmus said more help is needed. Volunteers help sort bottle caps, tape household batteries for shipment, and separate plastic shopping bags, among many other tasks.

“I need more hands because it's a bigger place,” she said.

While the hub encourages residents to continue using the city’s recycling program, it serves as a supplemental resource for items that municipal recycling doesn’t accept.

“I've got ways for the majority of that stuff to get recycled one way or another,” Ausmus said. “It's not going to the ground.”

Education remains one of the hub’s primary missions. Ausmus regularly works with students across age groups and often thinks of her six grandchildren when explaining why the work matters.

This fall, the organization won a $5,000 grant from Earlham College through a local competition. The money will fund a mobile trailer designed to travel to communities throughout Wayne County to collect recyclables. The goal is to launch the trailer by May 2026.

For Ausmus, changing the county’s recycling habits won’t happen overnight. But she believes progress begins with awareness and thinking about how recycling can fit into daily routines.

“When you don't see it, you're not around it, it's so easy just to shrug it off and do your everyday routine,” said Ausmus. “What you got to do is just take baby steps into changing your routine. Just start with one item. Figure out one item that you use, see if it can be recycled, and then there. It makes it a lot easier.”

The RE Hub is open Thursdays from 1 to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., located at 262 Fort Wayne Avenue in Richmond.

 More information can be found on the hub's website.