Recycled Materials & Waste

We live in an age of rapid urbanization that brings with it an endlessly growing demand for new homes, which has impacted the quality and lifespan of the homes we build. The current fate of older homes is typically one of demolition, sadly, rather than deconstruction. The relatively low-cost of the industrial waste…

Everywhere we look online we see cool & beautiful furniture like beds & headboards made from recycled wood from shipping pallets - but could they be slowly poisoning us? Here's how to keep pallet furniture safe. Pallet beds - cool but potentially dangerous! We've all seen these rustic shabby-chic pallet wood beds &…

Ever wonder what happens to the recycling you send out to the curb? It may surprise you to learn that it is often sorted by hand. Learn how to sort it properly here. Spending more time at home in the last few months since Covid-19 redefined our reality has presented many with an opportunity to clean, rearrange…

Sensible design, material re-use and using recycling centers can reduce what you send to a landfill. Whether you are building a new home, renovating an existing property, or completely deconstructing a building , you will end up with substantial amounts of waste, and some of these building materials can be reclaimed…

Get money for your old building material and Find used building materials on classified lists and through online brokers. When buildings are decommissioned there can be a lot of valuable materials that could be used again, but when buyers can’t find sellers, otherwise usable materials are being sent to a land fill…

How to sort and dispose of household waste responsibly – food waste, paper, glass, paints, solvents, batteries, etc.… here is where to send stuff so it does the least harm. Ideally, we would produce no waste. Unfortunately, that is an ideal that is hard to achieve for many of us. We can all strive to come as close…

Recycled building materials can add character to a home while you save money and reduce building waste in landfills. The cost of every item we purchase is determined in part by the price of oil. This includes products that are in no way petroleum based, since material extraction, manufacturing and transportation…

Salvage companies are pulling up logs from the bottoms of rivers, where a century and a half of log drives has left behind a lot of great wood. As a kid growing up along the Gatineau River in Quebec, watching tugboats pulling log booms down the river was commonplace, and logs that got loose were a great source of…

Felled trees in residential areas have most often been either burned as waste, or taken to landfills. With the help of portable mills and tree salvage companies, better use is being made of this valuable resource. Milling lumber from your own trees It's always a bit sad to watch an old and seemingly healthy tree…

Decommissioned aircraft getting second life as recycled metal is used as exterior cladding. They might be parked a little more precisely than an auto wrecking yard, but that doesn’t mean theses planes will ever fly again. Decommissioned aircraft have been declared so, because they have reached the end of their safe…

built with 105 recycled shipping pallets, this innovative structure by b sq. Design Studio Inc. included walkways, a playhouse, a water feature, and vertical herb gardens that delighted visitors at the flower and garden festival. b sq. Design Studio Inc. is a Toronto-based landscape design and build firm that…

The Nail Kicker quickly and easily removes nails from old lumber, saving costs on material purchase as well as waste disposal. Most people, certainly those reading here on our site, would no doubt prefer to see old lumber re-employed than sent to a landfill, but staying on a construction budget can on occasion trump…