Donate, Recycle, ReUse or the last resort, Dispose

Donate, Recycle, ReUse or the last resort, Dispose

Before you decide to assign your unwanted or left over construction or household materials and machinery to the land fill consider the many options you have to give those items a second use. If you cannot find someone somewhere who wants to take it off your hands you probably can find a program that will take your item for recycle salvage value. Please, please be responsible and take the time to find a home for your castoffs that is not a hole in the ground. Remember, one person's white elephant is another persons maltese falcon.

Most of the links that follow are regional to the King County, Puget Sound and Washington State area. For help outside our area go to Earth 911 and put in your zip code for information and links specific to where you live. Through a single toll-free phone call to 1-800-CLEANUP or the use of this Web site, you can access several sections of community-specific environmental information at no cost to the user or taxpayer. National information is also available at the Environmental Protection Agency's WasteWise website.

Give It - Recycling Programs

Wastemobile Answers
The Wastemobile travels to many separate communities to provide household hazardous waste disposal services for King County residents. When and where it will be is on this link, and you can see see where it is by date or by city. During the times when the Wastemobile is hibernating you can inquire at one of the fixed household hazardous waste collection sites for safe disposal of hazardous waste in Seattle and King County.
Second Use Building Materials
Second Use is a good friend of Habitat for Humanity and you can help your local Habitat affiliate by donating items in their name. When those items are sold Second Use returns a portion of the selling price to the affiliate you identified when you donated. Cleaning out the basement? Trying to keep the jobsite dumpster from overflowing? Tired of hauling loads of perfectly good items to the landfill? If you have materials we may be able to help you out. Our mission is to keep used but reusable materials out of the dump and we can always use more. To see if what you have is something we need check out the links on our website.
Business Waste Prevention and Recycling
The good news from a purely business perspective is that both waste prevention and recycling often save companies money, add meaning to employees' work (and pride in the business) and lead to positive publicity for the organization. The Resource Venture can show your Seattle company how to set up or expand a cost-effective waste prevention and recycling program.
King County Business Waste Directory (the Yellow Book)
From acid to zinc batteries the Waste Directory tells what to do with each waste type and lists vendors that will handle each. Although you may rely on other companies to haul away and dispose of your waste, you are ultimately responsible for the waste from "cradle to grave." Choose your vendors carefully, considering reliability as well as cost.
Disposal of Household Hazardous Waste
This site lists many common household products and related items and issues, and provides information on: potential hazards and product contents, proper disposal options, and safer alternatives. Help to determine what is hazardous and what is not. What to do and where to take each type.
Donating Used Household Items
Have you ever bought a new appliance and wondered how to get rid of your old one? Found stacks of old business periodicals you want to recycle? Upgraded your organization's computers and ended up with a mountain of old electronic equipment? This site is a database that contains listings of hundreds of businesses and organizations that accept unwanted items from residents and businesses in King County, Washington, for reuse, recycling or proper disposal.
Washington Organic Recycling Council (WORC)
A membership organization dedicated to the support and promotion of all aspects of organics recycling. Organic materials comprise over half of the solid waste generated in Washington. WORC members' contributions assist communities in reaching their recycling goals while producing valuable recycled products.
Steel Recycling Institute (SRI)
SRI is an industry association that promotes and sustains the recycling of all steel products. The SRI educates the solid waste industry, government, business and ultimately the consumer about the benefits of steel's infinite recycling cycle. (ahhh, such wordsmithing, "infinite recycling cycle")
Seattle/King County Construction Recycling Directory
This is for contractors. Do not click unless you can open PDF files.
King County Resources to Prevent Jobsite Waste
Another site for contractors. It is a very simple concept of responsibility and increased income.
Rechargeable Battery Recycling
The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC) can help you recycle your portable rechargeable batteries. RBRC recycles the following battery chemistries: Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cd), Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH), Lithium Ion (Li-ion) and Small Sealed Lead (weighing less than 2 lbs./1 kg) (Pb).
Electronics Recycling
Take it Back Network recyclers accept computers, monitors, printers, TVs, cell phones, PDAs, fax machines, stereos, DVD and VCR players, other household electronics and rechargeable batteries. The electronics are recycled domestically in an environmentally sound manner.

Take It - See What Others Have for You

Second Use Building Materials
"We carry many vintage, one-of-a-kind, and discontinued items that you will never find at your local mega-hardware depot. From turn of the century claw foot bathtubs and antique light fixtures, to vintage mouldings and old growth full dimension lumber we are the place. [Second Use] is a scavengers heaven. Instrument-quality old-growth cedar brought by a pack-rats widow. Stately white columns. A set of bathroom fixtures a seasick-inducing shade of green. Miles of beautiful doors. Acres of doorknobs
2 Good 2 Toss
An online materials exchange, 2good2toss is a convenient way to exchange small or large quantities of used or surplus building materials and large household items. Anyone can browse for items. To post you must be a resident of a participating community in any of the 13 different participating counties in Washington State.
IMEX (Industrial Materials Exchange)
IMEX, the Industrial Materials Exchange, a King County Program is a free service designed to match businesses and residential clients that produce industrial wastes, by-products, surplus materials, and other unwanted industrial materials with businesses and residential clients that need them.

Used Building Material Suppliers

Second Use Building Materials (my favorite place)
Second Use Building Materials, Inc. is a Puget Sound business which diverts reusable materials from the waste stream and resells them at affordable prices to the public. Their inventory includes vintage and hard-to-find architectural pieces as well as modern building materials.
Bedrock Industries
Products made from 100% recycled glass. A wide array of gift items and tiles for homes and gardens.
Earthwise
The goal at Earthwise is to preserve Seattle's architectural past by salvaging reusable building materials and architectural features that would otherwise be headed for the landfill, and offering them for sale to the community.
Seattle RE Store
A non-profit environmental education organization in the Northwest offering a variety of community education programs that focus on waste reduction and recycling, fresh and marine water quality and air quality.
Seattle Building Salvage
Restoration specialists since 1976. Here is a source for those who require truly authentic fixtures and architectural elements. Their specialty is original pre-1940 house parts.
TriVitro
Since 1996, TriVitro® has been developing innovative recycled glass products that excel in performance and provide safe, environmentally responsible solutions for a variety of applications. Have you been at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Concourse B and seen the recycled glass chips in natural shades of blue, green and clear form an artistic glass aggregate terrazzo "waterway" for sculpted bronze insets of salmon in the floor? TriVitro glass chips.
TerraMai - exceptional reclaimed woods
Offering you exceptional reclaimed woods from around the corner and around the world. Whether you are looking for old-growth beams taken from a 19th century Pennsylvanian barn or exquisite rosewood flooring made from antique Asian railway ties, we've got it for you. All products are solid wood, reclaimed from previously used buildings and structures. These sources yield the highest quality of wood available today. They also lend their history to your project and give you the knowledge that you are contributing to the preservation of the world's remaining old-growth forests.