Welcome to Part 2 of a three-part series about Circular Philadelphia leadership’s trip to Texas as part of several Circular Cities trips to learn more about how different American cities are approaching circularity in an effort to share knowledge and learnings in making the transition to a circular economy. We’re excited to bring you our learnings from San Antonio and we thank the Claneil Foundation for their support of this project. If you haven’t read it yet, you can read Part I of the series about Austin here.
Not only did Nic and Sam receive an incredible amount of circular economy tips and best practices from their friends in Austin, but Andy Dawson and Maddie Morgan provided some parting advice that proved to be just as valuable. And that was to go to Black’s BBQ in Lockhart, Texas.
In line with Nic’s and Sam’s goal to sample every bit of Texas cuisine, they had to have some Texas BBQ, and Black’s did not disappoint. Nor did the town of Lockhart, Texas. Lockhart was that quintessential Texas road stop town with a main square that housed the local courthouse surrounded by streets filled with little shops and boutiques. And as Nic and Sam have witnessed throughout their travels, many of the shops and boutiques were selling secondhand Texas treasures that could only be found in that corner of the world – another sign that circularity has thrived in small towns across America. Lockhart was even more ahead of the curve as the town square also had a boot and leather repair shop.
Meeting of the Circular Minds
With their bellies full of BBQ and pace slowed to small town Texas life, Nic donned his cowboy hat and drove the hotrod straight to San Antonio. After a quick unpacking and a walk around the old stone walls of the Alamo, which was just nearby the hotel, Nic and Sam braved even more rain and made it to the famed San Antonio Riverwalk where Stephanie Phillips and Chris Moken of Circular San Antonio were waiting for them at the fantastic restaurant Domingo.
Being that most of central Texas sits on a layer of limestone, it was fitting that the restaurant courtyard where Chris and Stephanie got a table was surrounded by 50 foot walls of beautiful limestone that abutted the Riverwalk and protected the tables from the elements. It was quite lovely to see the rain falling down on the river as the four enjoyed dinner.
But what was even lovelier was finally getting to meet Chris and Stephanie. Circular San Antonio launched just this summer, and one of the first moves they made to establish their organization was to reach out to Sam Wittchen to learn how Circular Philadelphia got started. Fast forward six months, and Circular San Antonio is solidifying their board, building their membership and finding out how they can make the most impact in San Antonio.
Chris Moken is one of those youthful and energetic people that, after hearing his extensive resume that spans entrepreneurism, government and conservation work, makes it hard to calculate his actual age. The same could be said about Stephanie, given all that she has accomplished in San Antonio City Government as the Deconstruction and Circular Economy Program Manager for the Office of Historic Preservation. (An amazing title, right?)
Throughout dinner it was remarkable to hear about the overlaps of the successes and challenges of trying to promote circularity on the city level. And there was sure a lot to talk about, as before anyone at the table knew, almost 4 hours passed. But it was a great prelude to the next day’s tours.
Reuse is Alive and Well in San Antonio
The next morning, Sam and Nic met Chris at the HEB Reverse Logistics Center. HEB is the biggest supermarket chain in Texas with over 350 stores as well as another 79 in Mexico. Started in 1905 by Florence Butt who just wanted to procure affordable and nutritious food for her growing family, the ethics of caring about the community and environment where they operate is still strong at HEB.
This ethic was completely embodied in Lainey Mitchell, who served as the tour guide for the day. Lainey had worked her way up the corporate ladder at a brisk pace and in just two years had taken advantage of HEB’s professional development programs to move from a delivery ops dispatcher to a more managerial role at HEB’s Reverse Logistics Center.
After an HEB truck delivers a trailer of product as a store, there is usually another trailer waiting to be hitched up that contains all of that store’s recycling, used cardboard boxes, plastic bulk product containers and food near its “best by” date. The trailer is then brought back to the Reverse Logistics Center in San Antonio where the magic happens.
The cardboard boxes are unloaded, organized and sent back to the product packing facilities to pack more products. Lainey said they get 7 to 8 uses out of one cardboard box, which saves the company over $1 million annually. The plastic trays for products like bread, meat and produce are also organized, washed and sent back to their food product facilities to be used to transport more food in such a careful process that they have a lifespan of 4-5 years, resulting in hundreds of uses for these containers. Food that is close to its “best by” date and would usually go unsold is sent to the 50 area food banks that HEB works with to ensure that food does not go to waste.
They also make sure that any furniture HEB stores use, such as chairs, tables and shelving, is auctioned off when it’s no longer needed so those materials don’t go to waste. And HEB’s San Antonio Reverse Logistics Center has its own material recovery facility (MRF) for all plastic, paper and metal recycling that could rival an entire city’s MRF.
But as impressive as the MRF was, what was more impressive was Lainey and her team’s continued innovation to capture materials that can be diverted from the landfill and incinerator and find solutions for those products. It was truly remarkable to see this approach in an operation that is feeding millions of people every week.
The much smaller operation they saw next was no less remarkable. The GPS took Nic, Sam and the hotrod to a leafy suburban neighborhood outside of the city center to the home of Kara Livingston. Nic and Sam did not have the pleasure of meeting with Kara as she had a baby just five days before. But there to give the tour of Hand Me Up was Kara’s business partner, Nicole Boynton.
As two moms who have lived through the struggle of managing the turnover and volume of clothes for their children, they decided to start Hand Me Up as an ecommerce platform where parents and caregivers can fill out a questionnaire regarding the sizes, colors and gender preferences that they need for kid and baby clothes. Customers can make one-off purchases or save a little bit of money by signing up for a monthly subscription, and Hand Me Up will then package up a bag of seven pieces of clothing based on the preferences and ship it to a customer’s front door. The package also contains a prepaid addressed bag where the customer can send Hand Me Up unneeded clothes for future credits on the platform.
Although Hand Me Up receives some clothes back from customers further afield, a majority of their clothes are sourced from families in the San Antonio area. Although they offer $1 per pound of clothes dropped off and have 60 participants who collect clothes for them, many times parents just want to get rid of clothes and are happy that this service exists in their community.
And even though the San Antonio community is important to Kara and Nicole, a New York Times feature completely blew up their business in the best way possible, and now they are shipping to 47 states (yet are still waiting for one order from those last holdouts in Wyoming, Iowa and Rhode Island), with major business on the East and West Coasts.
In time Nicole envisions having East and West Coast depots to make shipping and receiving easier. After bootstrapping the business, they are gaining interest from investors to scale it. But for now, they are an incredible example of circularity serving the San Antonio community and beyond. And yes, they are happy to do business with Philadelphia area families, so check out their website.
We Knew Them When
And for the last stop in San Antonio, Nic and Sam took a drive to Port San Antonio to meet Stephanie Phillips and her colleague Raquel Morris in a strangely serene and abandoned neighborhood just across from the Boeing Center at Tech Port. As Stephanie explained it, the neighborhood used to be connected to the former Kelly Air Force Base, which was decommissioned in 1999 and transformed into Port San Antonio. Back in the day, the oddly bucolic neighborhood of stately bungalows served as housing for Air Force generals and their families. Now, it serves as the perfect place for San Antonio’s circularity plans.
The first house Nic and Sam entered was the one in the best working condition, which made it a prime candidate for a training center for the Living Heritage Trades Academy. This is a city-run workforce development initiative that is training San Antonians in building renovation with a focus on preservation and entrepreneurism. Participants make upgrades to the Air Force old housing stock to learn skills as well as use the facilities for presentations and trainings.
Another house across the street is used as tool storage for the Academy and in time will become a tool library. San Antonio City Council has impressively made expanding tool libraries a priority for the city, and this will be yet another place to rent tools.
In the back of the neighborhood stands a series of storage sheds with a few piles of salvaged building materials in the parking lot. Stephanie explained that her office has done very limited marketing to contractors and partners that they can make appointments to drop off everything from dimensional lumber to doors and windows. There weren’t many materials in the parking lot, but as Stephanie opened the locks on each of the 10 or so sheds, she revealed troves of well-organized building materials that they have collected.
In time, Stephanie envisions making these materials available to contractors that want to use them on private contracts. But for now, the Living Trades Heritage Academy and the City’s affordable housing programs use the materials, and they will soon be input into the City’s Rheaply database. Rheaply is a fantastic circular economy company that acts as an Enterprise Resources Planning tool for large institutions, including city governments. By uploading every piece of city owned property to Rheaply, materials can easily move between departments when needed. So rather than buy new for each siloed department, this collaboration tool allows departments to share resources.
Eventually, Stephanie can see external groups being invited to the Rheaply platform to assist in undertakings such as expanded affordable housing development, community impact projects like park benches and bus shelters, and public art. But for now, Stephanie is working to leverage the resources to turn this whole neighborhood of old Air Force housing into a center for circular materials and reuse. Sam and Nic kept saying that they look forward to the day when they can say, “We knew them when!”
With the tour of San Antonio and all the great work of Circular San Antonio and its partners complete, there was just one last thing to do. And that was to memorialize the scene, the hotrod and Nic’s and Sam’s newly acquired cowboy gear in this picture below. Then it was off to blaze a trail back to Houston for the last leg of the journey.
If you missed Part I of this series, you can read all about the Austin leg of the trip here. Check out Part III of the series to read about how Houston is approaching circularity.
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