Country of Residence
United States
Age
16
Project title
Bucket Reuse Initiative
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
Collect reusable, food-grade bakery buckets that would otherwise be thrown away, cleaning them, and reselling them at affordable prices to local businesses and community members who can give them a second life.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-adams-iv
Project Category
My project is an existing project that I started
Project Stage
Growth (We’ve moved past the very first activities and are beginning to have consistent weekly or monthly impact)
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
I started working on the Scouting Distinguished Conservation Service award in 2022. I was already recycling aluminum and plastics through collection bins at local churches, but wanted to find other ways to reduce waste. One day, I was in the grocery store and noticed a stack of buckets behind the bakery counter. I asked what they did with them, and was told that they throw them away because they were empty. I realized that these buckets were still perfectly reusable and someone else may need them. This was my 'Aha' moment. I talked to the bakery manager and arranged to pick up buckets weekly. I brought them home, cleaned them, and started selling them to people and small businesses in my community. It has been years since I earned the DCSA award, but I still pickup the buckets weekly from a local bakery and a sandwich shop. What began as a temporary project has become a years long ongoing effort to help business get more use out of materials that they no longer need while making those materials available to other people who can use them.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
I want to address the fact that businesses sometimes throw away materials that are still useful. This is because they no longer need them or don't have an easy way to find someone who does. At the same time, other people and small businesses could use those materials. I am trying to solve this problem starting with food grade 2, 4, and 5 gallon plastic #5 buckets. The buckets are still usable, but the bakery and sandwich shop has no reason to keep them once they are empty. Caterers, florists, gardeners, beekeepers, and other people are buying new buckets for business and hobbies. I care about this problem because throwing something away is wasteful when that item still has useful life. Reusing materials can reduce waste, save resources, and help people get what they need at a lower cost. I want to make it easier for useful items to find a second home instead of becoming waste.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
I am working with a local grocery store bakery and sandwich shop to collect food-grade buckets that would otherwise be discarded. I arrange pickups, clean the buckets, and list them on Facebook Marketplace so businesses and people who need them can purchase and reuse them. The buyers use the buckets in different ways. I have sold to caterers who use the five-gallon buckets for brining turkeys, to multiple florist companies who use them to hold flowers, carp fishermen, beekeepers who use them for honey storage, and horse handlers have purchased smaller buckets to organize feed for individual horses. One family bought a dozen buckets for a Mario themed (green pipes) party for their toddler to use for games and chairs. A school's PTA bought buckets for a coin collection fundraiser. Mecklenburg County gardeners have also purchased buckets for their “Mosquito Buckets of Doom” project. My goal is to make reuse practical. I want businesses to have a way to pass along useful materials, and for people in the community to be able to find affordable supplies. I would like to build on this approach by finding more businesses with reusable byproducts and connecting them with people who need those materials.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
Over four years, I have diverted more than 1,600 pounds of plastic buckets from the landfill by getting them to people who can reuse them. The project has also connected me with a variety of people and small businesses in my community. I have been recognized by the former and present Mayor of Mint Hill and other local leaders for my community involvement. Some of the most interesting uses of these buckets have been five-gallon buckets caters used for brining Thanksgiving turkeys, buckets for flower storage at florists around town, supplies for beekeepers and fishermen, animal care and farmers. These examples have shown me that an item one business no longer needs can be useful to someone else. The project has been ongoing for more than four years, and I want to expand it so more materials can be reused and more people can benefit. My earlier conservation work for the Distinguished Conservation Service Award also generated $1,500 from the sale of recovered materials, which I donated to the Firefighters Burned Children's Foundation. With the bucket project initiative ongoing, I'm taking a different approach with proceeds now and saving so I can use proceeds to help sustain and potentially expand the project.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
My innovation is the connection between people who have something they no longer need and people who can use it. The buckets themselves aren't new, but finding a practical way to get them from the bakery to people who need them makes a difference both to the environment and to local businesses who benefit from lower cost supplies. I started with one bakery, one sandwich store, and one type of product. Now I can see how the same approach could work for other materials and businesses. For example, a similar approach may work for companies who have scrap wood, leather, or cloth byproducts. A company might have a byproduct it considers waste, while another business or community member might see it as a useful resource. I would like to create an app or community concept that allows these materials to be exchanged on a larger scale. Rather than treating every leftover material as trash, I want to help create more connections that keep useful things in circulation. I see the bucket project as one example of how local relationships can make reuse easier and more accessible.
How many people are on your team?
3
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
I direct the initiative and manage partner communications. I am of head bucket cleaning, customer logistics, and planning. My dad serves as logistics lead, handling weekly pickups and material transport, while my mom serves as digital outreach lead, coordinating our online platform listings and initial buyer communications. While I drive day-to-day operations and project growth, their operational partnership allows our small team to maintain a reliable multi-year reuse pipeline.
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
I want to grow the bucket project by finding additional bakeries or businesses that have reusable materials they would otherwise throw away. Longer term, I am interested in developing my ByProduct app idea. The concept is to make it easier for businesses with unwanted byproducts to connect directly with people or organizations that can use them. For example, some companies have scrap wood, leather, or cloth that could be used by others. Before trying to build an app, I want to learn more about what materials other businesses have available, who could use them, and what makes these connections difficult. The bucket project gives me a real-world way to learn what works. I hope to use that experience to expand the initiative and explore whether the same approach could help reduce waste beyond my own community.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
I explain to people that something a business throws away may still be useful to someone else. I am transparent to my buyers about where the buckets came from and ask them how they intend to use them. The bucket project gives me real examples of reuse to share, because the buckets are being used for everything from fishing, to flower storage, to gardening and animal care. I also connect people who have materials to spare with people who need them. Each successful reuse helps show that reducing waste doesn't always require a complicated solution; sometimes it starts by asking a question and making a connection. As I grow the project, I want to reach more businesses, identify other reusable materials, and encourage people to look at potential waste differently. I hope that by showing what has worked with the buckets, I can inspire others to find similar opportunities in their own communities.
