Find sustainable household goods at Roundhouse Exchange

When Travis Freeman moved to a River Market apartment seven years ago, he went looking for sustainable goods to set up his new kitchen. When he couldn’t find practical, durable items, he hatched the idea of an online store and opened it in 2015.

Roundhouse Exchange is a Kansas City based, online store with a warehouse pickup center in the West Bottoms. The company stocks household products for daily needs – cleaning supplies, brushes, mops, kitchen utensils and hand garden tools. You can find a wooden handled dish brush with a replaceable head, recycled glass cereal bowls, countertop compost can, an ice cream scoop made in Iowa, a hemp shower curtain from Chicago, wool dryer balls from a fiber mill in North Carolina and heavy-duty garden tools from Squires, MO.

These products are all carefully selected by Freeman for their durability and sustainable design, and shipped in eco-friendly packaging. When available, Freeman tries to find products regionally, but his top priorities are durability and sustainability standard. So, some products come from throughout the United States and beyond.

Customers can order products online and pick them up at the warehouse, or have them delivered to their door.

“I wanted to offer sustainable products to our customers,” Freeman said. “We avoid cheap products made in countries with poor environmental protections.”

Freeman also offers a 100-percent, take-back policy. So, at the end of the life of a product, you can return it, and he will ensure it is reclaimed or recycled. If necessary, the product is disassembled. For example, wood, hemp and plant fiber is composted. Metal is sorted for recycling. Some materials may be returned to the manufacturer for reuse.

Before opening Roundhouse Exchange, Freeman worked for a small manufacturer and learned first-hand the challenges of recycling materials.

“I believe that retailers can be instrumental in helping manufacturers reclaim materials going forward, and we want to be a part of that future,” Freeman tells visitors to his online store.

View the online products at Roundhouse Exchange or call Freeman at 816-745-0085 for more information. Roundhouse Exchange is open for product pickup from noon to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday at 1414 Wyoming St., Depot 8, Kansas City, MO.