In 1990, a group of volunteer community activists interested in creative ways for a rural community to manage its own waste locally, began operating a small recycling station in a parking lot near the Manzanita fire station. They called themselves the Community Action Recycling Team of Manzanita (CART’M). Eventually, CART’M Recycling formalized its status as a non-profit organization and in 1997 received the franchise from Tillamook County to operate the Manzanita Transfer Station.

During the winter of 1998-99 CART’M Recycling constructed its first building to house a re-use store and a baler for recycling processing, financed by Tillamook County and by grants from Meyer Memorial Trust. In May of 1999, CART’M Recycling hosted the very first Trash Bash to celebrate art, reuse and community.

In 2010, the name was simplified to ‘CARTM’ (pronounced CART-um), losing the apostrophe as well as ‘Recycling’. By this time, CARTM was more than a small group of people. It was a place, a community and a philosophy. Again, with assistance from key community members CARTM rebranded, placed new emphasis on the retail store and added “artistic expression through creative reuse of materials,” to its mission.

Then, at the end of 2018, the inconceivable happened. Tillamook County Commissioners voted to end the franchise agreement under which CARTM was operating the transfer station. The organization sold all of its equipment, emptied the reuse building and vacated the property. For the next 3 years, CARTM board members met regularly and discussed options for revival of operations. The pandemic took its toll on the rural community, and finally board members faced the fact that CARTM the organization had no steam left to move on.

In the Spring of 2021, Jessi Just, former Operations Manager for CARTM, stepped forward with 5 new board members and a plan. They called themselves ‘Heart of Cartm’ and would re-open a very small version of The Refindery in a section of an old building in downtown Wheeler. In July, new board members took office and in August, the new ‘Refindery’ opened its doors.

In March 2022, Heart of Cartm rented another section of the old building right next door and turned it into a workshop space for Repair and Reuse classes.

This new space is a step toward our big vision. We see our work over the last 25+ years as a huge success, moving the focus away from landfilling, first with recycling, then with reuse and now with repair and reimagination.

We will continue to reimagine our community’s discards, as valuable resources.

YOU can help us with this vision!