Doing A Home Renovation Project? Check Out What Just Might Be the Coolest — And Greenest — Company Around

When it comes to the topics of home improvement and green design — both taking care of the earth and giving back to the community — Montclairians are a pretty well-informed bunch. Go to any dinner party or school gathering and someone is bound to be embarking on a home renovation project. Someone else will have an opinion or a suggestion on how to do something green. And everyone else will be talking about their latest community service project, from soup kitchens to PTAs to community gardens. 

When it comes to the home, it seems almost unheard of these days to buy an appliance that isn't Energy Star rated or almost anything that isn't somehow 'green certified' or recycled from something else. Montclairians as a group seem to be getting greener and greener, especially as cabinets made from recycled products or sustainably harvested wood, cork floors, and concrete countertops made with recycled glass become easier both to find and to afford.

But as everything new seems to be made from something old, where is all the old stuff going?

One of the most ubiquitous markers of the beginning of any home renovation project is the installation of the giant dumpster. All the old appliances, countertops, cabinets, floors, and everything else go right into the dumpster and into the landfill, usually without a second's thought or pang of guilt. After all, what else are you supposed to do with your old kitchen or bathroom?

Although I never cared too much for my old kitchen, when we decided to redo it, I was convinced that there was a better use for it than filling up space in a landfill — everything worked, the counters weren't stained or cracked, the cabinets were in pretty good shape. So I figured someone could use the stuff — I called all the local churches, synagogues, the United Way, the soup kitchens, Salvation Army, and more. But, unfortunately, it seemed after hours on the phone and online, really no one wanted a perfectly good kitchen. 

And then we found Green Demolitions, quite possibly one of the coolest companies around. With Green Demolitions, everyone wins.

Here's how it works: The homeowner has something significant that they no longer want or need — usually a kitchen or a bathroom, but it could be great furniture, built-in bookcases, or something similar. The homeowner calls or emails and sends digital photos. Then, Green Demolitions will send out an appraiser who takes a look, snaps some additional photos, and writes descriptions. Hopefully, soon after that, the donation is accepted and a mutually convenient demo date is chosen.

In our case, Green Demolitions was interested in the contents of both our kitchen and a powder room that we were gutting. They came the day before our contractor was scheduled to start and removed the entire two rooms in approximately two hours. They were neat, clean, prompt, polite, and meticulous both with what they removed and how they got it out of the house. They took the refrigerator, range, dishwasher, sink, disposal, all the cabinets and countertops, as well as the toilet and pedestal sink from the powder room.

So at this point, I've saved on contractor demolition costs and I've gotten a major tax write-off. And I have no landfill guilt. But it gets better. Not only do I benefit and the earth benefits, but there are some real, tangible benefits to other people as well.  

Green Demolitions takes all my stuff and they sell it at a deep discount in one of their stores (located in CT, NJ, NY, and PA). The inventory in these stores is not only recycled kitchens and the like from people's homes like mine, but also includes overstocks and showroom kitchens. They have Clive Christian kitchens for a tiny fraction of what they would cost in a normal retail setting. So, people who need stuff get it at a steep discount. And that's great too.      

And the story continues. The proceeds of what they sell at these stores benefit Recovery Unlimited, a nonprofit started by Green Demolitions president and founder Steve Feldman. A recovering addict, Feldman started this nonprofit many years ago to help other recovering addicts, depending mostly on contributions.  After seeing the demolitions of major kitchens near his Connecticut home, he came up with the brilliant idea of starting Green Demolitions. The kitchens don't go in the landfill, the homeowners save money, the consumer gets a great product at a fair price, and his nonprofit is now self-sustaining and not dependant on cash donations. 

For us, it was the perfect solution and a fantastic start to what we hope is a positive renovation project. For anyone starting a project and wanting to either save money, do it 'greener,' or just pay it forward in some way, Green Demolitions might be worth checking out. You can find them at www.greendemolitions.org or at 888-887-5211.