If you Build It Green, they will come

Salvage retailer keeps trash from going to the landfill.

ASTORIA The French doors are usually sold almost as soon as they're displayed at the 17, 500-square-foot warehouse for Build It Green! (BIG), a year-old nonprofit retailer of salvaged and surplus materials that's become a favorite haunt for artists and film scouts rummaging for good deals.

These doors - and windows, sinks, kitchen cabinets, shower fixture, ovens, air conditioners and occasional movie theater seats - are mostly donated by contracots or collected at demolition sites in an effort to curb landfill waste from the city's construction industry: It produces roughly 33,000 tons of waste a day, 13,500 tons of which can be reused. Construction accounts for roughly 60 percent of the city's waste stream.

The French doors were snapped up for $650 by someone who had paid $1,500 for similar ones elsewhere, according to Nate Develder, a BIG staffer who said BIG's prices tend to be 50 to 70 percent less than Home Depot.

"Home Depot has stores everywhere and they're open 24 hours, seven days a week, so we can't compete in that way," said Forrest Gillespie, another BIG employee. "But we're a lot cheaper." And it's doubtful the chain store's sound system plays tracks from Bob Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" as BIG does or has staffers who like to talk trash -and the benefits of reusing it.

"People are used to seeing litter everywhere here and they're so used to throwing things away," Gillepie said. "Hopefully, there's incentive to save things from going to landfills, but developers like the tax deductions they get by donating the stuff." They also can save money on paying for dumpsters - and the organization will collect the materials if the resale value exceeds $500. "It's a really intuitive partnership."

Tapping into Movies

While "deconstruction" - the process of removing materials from a building site - is big in other cities, it is just catching on here, though BIG is still struggling for visibility with its $9,000 monthly rent. t is hoping to expand by tapping into the growing film industry to reuse materials from sets.

"There's a film production house around the corner and they probably filled 12 dumpsters before we said, 'hey, you don't need to do that,'" Gillespie recounted. "A lot of sets just get tossed out."

Jacob Cirell, 28, who recently moved into a Bushwick loft, has been a loyal customer ever since his ceiling partially collapsed during a crowded party with live music. "We had to build a support structure for the ceiling," he siad. "We spent $2.40 for 2-by-4s and 2-by-3s. We bought the wood so cheap because it had screws and nails in it, so we took them out and used them." It would have cost more than $20 from Home Depot, he said. "It's like a New York City yard sale, it's something fun you do on a weekend, " said Anna Montana, 26, who found some denim, a roll of elastic and pain in a pile of free stuff. "Plus, it's all recycled and for a good cause."

One man's trash ...

In Build It Green's first year, it has diverted 148 tons of demolition construction waste and saved local businesses more than $145,000 in construction and demolition waste disposal costs.

Once the program is profitable, the proceeds will go to educational programs at Solar One, an energy conservation agency at Stuyvesant Cove.

Build It Green
(www.bignyc.org) is located at 3-17 26th Ave. at 4th Street in Astoria.

-Amy Zimmer