Nonprofit expands decades-long effort to reduce and reimagine waste in Tillamook County

The Refindery in the tiny coastal town of Wheeler is not your typical thrift store. For one thing, you won’t find secondhand clothes for sale. But if you’re looking for a 1986 wall calendar, a used door hinge that still works or that missing piece for a Monopoly board game, you might be in luck. The Refindery invites visitors to reimagine and repurpose items otherwise destined for the landfill, like the glass fish and salvaged seashells mounted inside a vintage television displayed in the store. It also hosts a monthly event where community members can bring in broken vacuum cleaners, lamps and other objects for repair by a team of volunteers. The Refindery and the Repair Café are operated by Heart of Cartm, a nonprofit formed in 2021, which grew out of  a volunteer-run recycle transfer center started in Manzanita three decades ago. Jessi Just, the executive director of Heart of Cartm, joins us to talk about her organization which was recently profiled in Oregon ArtsWatch, and its ongoing work to reduce and reimagine waste on Oregon’s North Coast.