Reuse Stores: finding buried treasure

Most regions of the province have small businesses that receive and sell used building supplies, appliances, furniture and fixtures. These items generally come from new construction, renovation, deconstruction and demolition projects.

Some companies focus on antique and vintage building materials and fixtures while others will accept almost anything. These businesses hearken back to times when materials were so valuable that they were stored for reuse. “One person’s garbage is another one’s gold.”

If useful materials have been salvaged from a project and:

• they can’t be reused within the project that produced them or;
• an interested party has not been identified through the online material exchange lists

Then donating them to a reuse store is a good option.

Not everything leftover at the end of a project has value or a place in a reuse centre, so it is important to call ahead to insure they will accept the materials being offered, and to ask if there will be collection charges or other fees. If there are items they cannot accept they may know of someone else that can use what you have.
 

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