ExchangeMyPhone.com "Reuse & Restoration: Beyond Knickknacks"

Reuse & Restoration: Beyond Knickknacks

Between flea markets, antique shops and the over-picked Salvation Army on Bedford, NYC is the nation’s capital when it comes of thrifty home decor spots. Need a 19th century butter churn? A working gramophone? An gold-leafed almanac? No problem. But when it comes to the more substantial pieces of a home, such as kitchen cabinets, tabletops and door frames, a lot of us are still running to IKEA.

Build It Green!NYC is the non-profit that wants to change this. With 38,000 tons of building “waste” discarded every day in NYC it seems painfully obvious that a lot of perfectly usable materials are being sent to landfills. Build it Green!NYC is the city’s only non-profit retail outlet for salvaged and surplus building materials. All items for sale have been reclaimed from demolished or remolded buildings around the city.  The materials are donated by building suppliers, and contractors as well as television and film crews. At their 17,500-square-foot warehouse Astoria warehouse, which opened in 2004, you can find everything from claw-foot bathtubs, to vintage theater seats and high-end appliances, all at a resale price.

All Build it Green!NYC proceeds go towards Community Environmental Center initiatives around the city.  ExchangeMyPhone is all about the “double-the-good” spirit of Build it Green! NYC because we agree that the benefits of reuse should go back to the communities that make such initiatives possible. We will definitely be headed to the Build It Green!NYC Halloween Costume swap coming up this month!

So, with all the “thrill of the hunt” that every thrift-store addict loves, and double the benefit, can anyone afford not to Build it Green!?