The Green effort does not just focus on direct energy conversion.  This past weekend I had an opportunity to visit a local business that reclaims building material from “tear-downs” or rehabs and repurposes them to be used by others.  The materials are typically in a high usable state of repair, or even perfect if things were never even installed. 

The deal is that these “businesses” bring these materials in and resell them at tremendous discounts.  I saw raw materials such as lumber and tiles to nice finished old windows and full sets of kitchen cabinets.  There were even old washers and driers, some of which were coin operated, and at $25 a machine, wow what a great way to save a ton of money and put something back in use.

The Green part is for a couple of reasons.  Use of these products eliminates dumping the material in the landfills.  Repurposing products also requires us to spend less energy creating more items, reducing energy consumption and byproducts, such as greenhouse gases.

So, go out and look for your local community reclamation or salvage shop and put an old product into a new life.  This also allows us to help reduce the impact on the environment and keep a Green outlook for the future.

Have fun shopping,

Greenist.