St. Louis Teachers’ Recycle Center

This is a real hidden gem … maybe a diamond in the rough. And it’s not just for teachers. My mom is really creative and shops here for lots of her supplies. She makes little cloth dolls with the fabric, and I’ve painted some boxes I got there. I once found a treasure trove of chemistry stuff, and an old Erlenmeyer flask becomes a hip, modern vase for less than $ 1. You have to have an imagination to find things here. They have fabric, tile, wood, and rock samples that would have been used by companies to sell their products. They have tons of binders, folders, little boxes, used crayons, empty oatmeal containers, empty spools of thread, and seriously miscellaneous items. I could go on forever. It’s completely random and ever changing.
It’s fun to stop in and see if there is anything new and interesting. It’s definitely a place where some weeks you may leave with 10 pounds and others with none. But it’s always fun to poke around, and it’s in the old Victoria’s Secret so you get to explore all of the drawers.
I think this would be a great place to shop if you wanted to do an art project with kids or if you were a crafty person. I also like the recycling aspect of it. I think sometimes people forget that recycling goes beyond putting plastic bottles and tin cans in a recycling bin.
Most things are sold by the pound, and you buy a «Pound Pass» for a certain number of pounds (usually about $ 1 per pound). Some things like the books are $ 1 a piece and not sold by the pound. Another oddity about this place is the hours. It is open the first and third Tuesday of the month 2:00 — 6:00 and every Saturday 10:00 — 1:00. And they don’t take credit cards.