Hometown Hero Diane Cohen: Envisioning ReUse and making it happen for our community

When she graduated from Ithaca College with an art degree, Diane Cohen, chief executive officer of Finger Lakes ReUse, Inc., never envisioned herself the leader of a vital community organization. 

“No wonder I couldn’t imagine what I would be doing with my life,” Cohen said of her career’s trajectory. “It’s surprising every day, and a real labor of love.”

When life led her to the opportunity to help build ReUse from the bottom up, she seized on the chance to make a difference in her community. 

“She had a vision, conceived of and built up the Finger Lakes ReUse program to the amazing size and scope of services it represents today, not just ReUse but also employment and training services for the hard to employ, deconstruction to salvage valuable building assets that can be used in new construction and more,” said Monika Roth, who nominated Cohen to be Tompkins County’s newest Hometown Hero. 

Cohen, who is originally from Albany, majored in art with a minor in politics.

“I stayed in town and tried a whole bunch of different jobs, mostly in the service industry,” Cohen said. She worked for Significant Elements, a branch of Historic Ithaca funded by a Tompkins County grant.

“Five years into managing that program, I was asked to help plan this ReUse Center that Tompkins County had in its plan,” Cohen said.

“So they invited me to plan with a group of people from Cornell Cooperative Extension and Ithaca College,” she explained. “Starting in 2005, we planned for two-and-a-half years, and in 2008 opened the first ReUse Center.” That original location is the ReUse MegaCenter, located in Triphammer Marketplace. 

One thing that has not changed over the years is that Tompkins County has far more market, demand and supply for material than Significant Elements can handle, and a wider variety of materials as well, including construction materials, household items, furniture, clothing, books and electronics, Cohen said.

“Our greatest challenge has been a success, in a way, in that the public keeps bringing us more and more material every year,” Cohen said. That has ramped up considerably over the last year; ReUse has received 30% more material donations this year over last year.

“We’re probably as busy as we’ve ever been,” said Ivan Yalanzhi, ReUse business administrator. He said ReUse is currently selling over 2,200 items per day.

“Four or five years ago, we were barely breaking 1,000,” Yalanzhi said, adding that from 2018 to 2023 ReUse has seen about 100% growth in its sales.

The ultimate goal, Cohen said, is to create a marketable path in the local economy’s infrastructure to allow for material to be returned, effectively keeping it from being landfilled or incinerated and ultimately transforming the entire waste system. “It needs to happen,” Cohen said, adding that she has the continued support of the many dedicated people who helped ReUse become what it is today.

“Many of my coworkers and colleagues from over the last 20 years came over and got this going,” Cohen said of ReUse’s second location, the Ithaca ReUse Center on Elmira Road. 

One of those employees is Yalanzhi, who managed the first location for eight years.

“The more I worked with Diane, the more I realized that she’s very passionate about the mission of Finger Lakes ReUse: Enhancing the community, economy and environment through ReUse.”

He said he also appreciates her approach to leadership.

“ReUse is really an industry with all kinds of people with different backgrounds from different cultures, educational backgrounds and economic backgrounds, and she always has gotten an incredible kind of commitment and skills from those people, and I think that’s something she always saw in me. And I’m very grateful,” Yalanzhi said.

“She is compassionate and really believes in giving people a second chance,” he added. “She is a tough leader, and she is sometimes faced with tough decisions, but she’s always put people in front of financial decisions.”

Significant Elements is still thriving, Cohen said. “We cooperate together, especially through cr0wd.org.” CR0WD (Circularity, Reuse, Zero Waste Development) is a collaborative network of planners, architects, preservationists, policymakers, salvage and reuse professionals, real estate specialists, academics and students from around New York state.

The ReUse culture is built around collaboration. “We have weekly meetings with Historic Ithaca, people from all over New York state, to help build up this circular economy focused on building materials of all sorts, as well as discussing policy development and best practices and sharing resources,” Cohen said.

One of ReUse’s biggest partners is Recycling and Materials Management of Tompkins County, where Kat McCarthy is deputy director.

“She definitely has had a significant impact on the community,” McCarthy said. “It’s been really impressive, the programming she’s developed. She is passionate and dedicated to ReUse.”

McCarthy said she appreciates Cohen’s dedication to finding deconstruction opportunities within the community.

“Deconstruction is the methodical way of taking a building down piece by piece, versus demolition,” McCarthy explained. “You get more materials out of the waste stream.”

The wide-ranging impact of ReUse is in large part due to the hard work of the 70 volunteers who help ReUse every month and a highly dedicated volunteer board of directors, Cohen said. 

And Cohen said one of her biggest accomplishments over the years has been maintaining a living wage for all of the organization’s 80 employees.

“It remains a daily struggle, but we have 80 living-wage employees doing the work of keeping reusable materials in circulation, and the fact that we have been a living-wage employer from the beginning is something I’m proud of,” Cohen said. She is also proud that today she sees ReUse as “somewhere where people can empower themselves and find transformation and grow. We’ve all been growing together. Sometimes it’s a painful joy, and it’s a lot of work — but very rewarding work.”

Tompkins Weekly’s Hometown Heroes Award is sponsored by Security Mutual Insurance and Canopy by Hilton Ithaca.