New Life For Old Materials

WALLA WALLA - It's barely 9:30 on a cold over­cast Saturday morning in a distant corner of the Walla Walla Regional Airport and Industrial Park. But things are already busy at 551 Lock­heed

Ave., home of Builders ReSupply.

Matt and Lindsey Wil­liams, a young couple who just bought a 900-square-foot home on Walla Walla's Bonselle Street, are looking for different hardware to put on their kitchen cabi­nets.

It's just one item on a long, home-improvement to-do list, Lindsey jokes while the couple and his parents browse the aisles at the 1,000-square-foot retail store. "We're shopping for ideas, and we like to reuse," she says as she shows a Folger's tin full of decorative knobs and handles to her husband. "These look great." That kind of talk and the Williams' purchase of the tin full of hardware and a bath­room sink that morning are music to the ears of Dan Mal­lery, who runs the part-time salvage and resale operation that started here in May.

A project of the Wal­la Walla-based nonprofit Sustainable Living Center, Builders ReSupply gives new life to used building materials while keeping them out of lo­cal landfills, which is where the idea for the exchange was born. The concept, inspired by similar nonprofit stores in Se­attle, Portland, Yakima, Spo­kane and Richland (several of them connected to Habitat For Humanity), saves con­tractors

and homeowners on a remodel mission dumping fees while sparing taxpayers the cost of subsidizing the premature demise of many reusable supplies. A year and a half ago, the center conducted a survey among contractors dumping their demo materials and discovered they scrap more than 200 tons of reusable dimensional lumber, almost 400 windows, not to mention doors, wall board, faucets, sinks, tubs, heating ducts, in­sulation,

light fixtures, pipe, plumbing fittings, roofing and siding.

Now, thanks in part to a $22,000 grant from the Envi­ronmental Protection Agen­cy, consumers have access to many of these items at prices that won't bust their budgets. The grant was intended as seed money for the project and runs through May of 2011, so by then the store has to make enough money to keep going without a subsidy. Most of the materials come in as donations from contractors. But because commercial contractors themselves are limited in their ability to reuse sec­ondhand

materials, most the store's customers are do-it-yourselfers.

Though he prefers build­ers drop by with their in-kind gifts, Mallery will orches­trate

salvage pickups when there's enough to make it worthwhile. A lot of dona­tions don't stay around long as the demand for affordable materials is high in the cur­rent economic downturn. Some of the larger items and donations are posted on Craigslist for a quick sale.

Though the retail store is still small and the inventory limited, Mallery, who owns a windows and doors company next door, said it's not bad for a start. As momentum picks up, the project can expand into adjacent leasable space which once belonged to the U.S. Corps of Engineers' mo­tor pool. Eventually, the store will have an information center that offers workshops on refurbishing used materi­als, said Jenna Bicknell, the Sustainable Living Center's executive director. The focus on recycling is in keeping with the mission of the center, which was formed in 2002 by Waits­burg area resident Karen Yager and others who recog­nized the need in the Walla Walla area for a year-round, educational effort centered on sustainability. If the retail store does well enough, it may even help generate some revenues for the center itself, Bicknell said. Builders' ReSupply is open Tuesdays 9 - 12, Wednesdays noon - 3 p.m. and by appointment. For more information regarding the store and about making donations, call 509-629-1638.