Repurposing Construction Materials Made Easy on Contractor Yard Sale

On Contractor Yard Sale, Andrew Pennington establishes a simple market exchange for surplus building materials.  Contractors and Suppliers are provided an opportunity to list any surplus building materials, while consumers can find these materials at great discount prices.  According the EPA, "Construction and demolition generates 160 millions of tons of waste each year in the U.S., every ton of which is an opportunity to reduce, recycle, and reuse."  Contractor Yard Sale operates primarily in Kentucky.  There are similar exchanges around the country - including Construction Junction in Pittsburgh, which operates a brick-and-mortar surplus store and a growing national chain of ReStore outlets, opereated by Habitat for Humanity.



FastCompany provided the lead for this post.  A summary of the article and a link to the original are below:

The building industry has been through the ringer in the Great Recession and contractors along with it, but tough times also help us to see new opportunities like finding new uses for wasted building materials. Construction and demolition generates 160 millions of tons of waste each year in the U.S., according to the EPA--every ton of which is an opportunity to reduce, recycle, and reuse. Very often excess supplies like lumber, tile, or plumbing supplies that are ordered for a job can't be returned, and will end up in the landfill or stacked up in warehouses. The pressure to get efficient and save money has people like Andrew Pennington taking another look at these materials and how to get them out of storage and into use. Andrew Pennington has a plan to reduce this waste with the Contractor Yard Sale, now open at a computer near you.

A large variety of material ordered by contractors often can't be returned from the job site such as lumber, lighting, plumbing, doors, or windows, from the smallest screws to the kitchen sink. This material is still perfectly usable in the right hands for the right job, but the trick is matching up those who have these surplus building supplies with those who need them.

Contractors can post their materials on the site for a small fee, and anyone looking for low cost building materials can get in touch with them to buy it. It's that simple.

"It is a place for contractors or even suppliers to advertise their surplus items for sale, and for consumers to pick them up at a low price" said Pennington. "It's like an online yard sale. When you go out to browse a yard or garage sale, you don't really know what you're looking for, but you can bet that you'll find something cheap and pretty awesome."

Using the Internet to facilitate transactions like this is part of the growing trend of collaborative consumption. The power of the Internet has been unleashed through websites like Craigslist bringing together what sits unused in one person's garage into the hands of someone who can really use it. Swapping, sharing, and reusing are all part of this trend, and the economic pressure of the Great Recession has driven its growth, forcing people and businesses to rethink how they get things to save money.

This trend also happens to be pretty green, saving resources and helping the environment as well as boosting the bottom line. As the trend grows, it continues to extend into new niches like building supplies with Contractor Yard Sale.

Link to original article at FastCompany.com