Comments on: Home improvement and recycling – what’s the best way to get rid of replaced items?

By: John Chalinder Montana USA

John Chalinder Montana USA — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:21:59 +0000

Donate the used but still useable items to a thrift store, or have a yard sale and turn them into cash. This way the locks will be reused, and you will have offered someone an inexpensive option to buying new locks.
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By: Mrs B

Mrs B — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:36:59 +0000

Go to freecycle.org and see if they are in your area. If not, start up a program in your area. Or, take the used, but still working items to a Goodwill store. Or, you can donate them to the Salvation Army or other, similar organizations.
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By: Corey G

Corey G — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:20:59 +0000

use you loal yellow pages and find a local metal scrap yard someone will find a use for them
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By: pt1163

pt1163 — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:50:59 +0000

If you look in the yellow pages you should have some kind of metal scrap yard in your town.
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By: FredHH

FredHH — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:40:59 +0000

Take them to a locksmith and ask if he can use them for spare parts.
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By: pensacola_sand

pensacola_sand — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:32:59 +0000

Some items, like your locks could be sold online with eBay or some other auction house. There is an online resource for people who give away items that they don’t want. {I’m having a hard time trying to find that link now, but will post it once found.}

If you live in a large enough city and your items are unique enough you could find a salvage yard that wants to pay you for your stuff. Sometimes the salvage yard will simply pick your stuff up for free and make the money back for their time by selling it cheap. Check in your phone book under salvage.

And lastly, find out if there’s a scrap metal dealer in you area. Use the phone book or a search engine. They’ll buy your metal, melt it down and sell it again.
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By: eternal_goof

eternal_goof — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:58:59 +0000

Habitat for Humanity runs a secondhand store just for used or leftover home improvement materials such as the door knobs and locks that you mentioned. Maybe there is one near you? The locations are listed on the website listed in the sources.
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http://www.habitat.org/env/restores.aspx

By: Mike T

Mike T — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:41:59 +0000

You can find salvage yards almost anywhere in the US the specialize in collecting and selling metal of all types. Depending on the different types of metal you bring in they will pay you per pound and they then resell the metal to foundries, etc that will recycle the metal into something else. I know that I've been rnovating my house here in PA and I've taken a bunch of different materials (brass door plates, copper pipe, etc) and you can make a pretty good chunk of change dependingo n how much you have. Just recently I took 16 pounds of copper pipe that I replaced in my bathroom and got $2.50 a pound for it; some brass at $1.60 per poundand scrap steel/iron at only $.0475 per pound. It isn't much, but it adds up after you get a bit collected. These are also the types of places that collect and crush old cars, etc. If the items still have some value I would put them up on Ebay. You'd be surprised what some folks will buy, especially older (antique) door knobs, handles, hardware, etc.
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By: cece

cece — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:34:59 +0000

all the above are good ideas but I might add you might want to call habitat for humanity. They take used materials and put them in the houses they build. The only thing that I know for sure that they don't take is older toilets because they install low flow toilets in their houses.
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By: dmarie1314

dmarie1314 — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:13:59 +0000

Some cities (I know mine does) have home restoration warehouses that take donations of old materials for people to buy at a low cost. It helps people on low incomes and bargain hunters. Ours is called "Restore York". Check your phone book or online for something similar. A big box store such as Home Depot or Lowes may be able to answer the question or offer a recycling service of their own. Hope that helps!
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