Before a vintage lamp shows up at a thrift store or a theater flat gets reused in a new production, somebody had to get it there. That's the part of the circular economy people don't always see: the physical work of salvage.
Someone has to be willing to walk into an estate that needs to be cleared in two weeks, a building scheduled for demo, or a theater where sets are about to be trashed. Someone has to see past the mess and the inconvenience to the value that can be unlocked when materials are used again.
The episode starts with George Mathes of Thunderbird Salvage, who traces his path from a childhood dream of becoming an archaeologist sparked by finding an arrowhead, to building a business that treats estate clean-outs like excavation sites. For George, salvage is archaeology: uncovering objects with history, understanding their value and deciding what should be preserved. He describes the reality of managing an endless stream of materials from estates, commercial spaces and architectural sites from vintage textiles and oddities to Christmas décor and what it takes to keep materials in circulation instead of letting them become waste.
The episode then turns to Philadelphia Scenic Works, where salvage happens on a different scale. This nonprofit intercepts entire stage worlds – flats, props, platforms – before they're demolished after closing night. They provide the warehouse space, the organizational systems, and the skilled labor that allow theaters and schools to share resources instead of building from scratch and trashing everything when the curtain falls.
Salvage isn’t passive. It requires infrastructure, time and people willing to do the work most people never see. That effort is what turns reuse from a niche idea into a functioning market
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George Mathes is the founder of Thunderbird Salvage, a Philadelphia-based operation that sits at the intersection of material recovery, history, and logistics. Through estate transitions, commercial closures, and architectural changeovers, George and his team step in at moments when buildings and belongings are about to disappear. Thunderbird Salvage turns those moments into opportunities by extracting, sorting, and redistributing materials through a system built for reuse rather than disposal. Follow their work at @thunderbirdsalvage.
Philadelphia Scenic Works demonstrates what circularity looks like in practice by treating stage scenery as shared assets, not disposable outputs. Through material recovery, warehousing and coordination, they enable repeated use of scenic resources for theaters, schools and arts organizations while cutting waste and production costs.
To learn more about the circular economy and support Circular Philadelphia’s work to transform waste and resource systems for all, visit circularphiladelphia.org.
