7 ways to recycle your old kitchen
We’re all accustomed to recycling household and food waste, but how do you recycle your old kitchen?
It’s recommended that you update your kitchen at least every 10-15 years; over a lifetime that could be hundreds of kilos of rubbish piling up in landfill. To be as sustainable as possible, either utilise materials you already have or if you are getting rid, how about giving instead?
There are so many ways to recycle your old kitchen. From selling/donating it through an interior recycling organisation, or repurposing your existing carcasses, doors, or worktops, you can easily give your kitchen a new lease of life and prevent it from going to waste.
1. Rehome
Rehome, formally known as Used Kitchen Exchange, allows you to enjoy the best of both worlds when moving your old kitchen on. They sell your kitchen for a reasonable price with minimal effort on your part, with the photography, measuring and dismantling carried out as part of their service. They state that 6-8 weeks is often the length of time taken to sell your kitchen, with 99% of the kitchens listed going on to be sold.
This allows your old kitchen to receive a new lease of life under a different owner and earn you some additional cash to contribute towards your forever kitchen, whilst reducing landfill and ensuring your kitchen has been replaced with sustainability at the forefront of your decision-making. Plus you can earn
Discover more about how you can sell your used kitchen with Rehome.
2. Freecycle
The Freecycle Network™ is a great nonprofit movement that offers millions of members a chance to reuse and re-home other people’s unwanted items at no cost.
It prevents the waste and disposal of these items in landfills across the world. For items that would normally end up in a tip to head to landfill, someone may find use and be in need of your unwanted goods. You can find anything from materials to whole appliances, all without waste!
This kind of recycling is a perfect way to counter ‘single-use culture’. Whatever you’re looking to get rid of, take a look at your options first. Often what you may consider to be broken, could be a treasure to somebody else.
Happy Freecycling!
3. Facebook Marketplace
As with Freecycle, you can prevent the waste of perfectly good materials. Selling on Facebook means that you can reach an incredibly wide audience of buyers and sustainably dispose of your kitchen quickly.
4. Repurpose Kitchen Cabinets
Kitchen cabinets are some of the strongest in the home and it would be a terrible waste to throw them away after you’re finished with them. The wood can be repurposed into shoe cupboards or desk. You can even use your old kitchen to make your children a bespoke mini kitchenette!
5. Reuse your kitchen carcasses
If built using robust a material, often you will find reusing your kitchen carcasses can be a cost effective method of renovating your kitchen. With the carcasses acting as the bones of your cabinetry, replacing only the external doors a drawers allows you to give your cabinets a cost efficient makeover. Often its the exterior of our kitchen cabinets that recieve the most wear and tear over the years, leaving the carcasses in good condition.
There can be some complications however, if the carcass has been severely damaged. For example if it has taken extensive water damage, or if the material was of low quality and is simply falling apart. A limiting factor in choosing to reuse your carcasses is that you then have less freedom in your design process, leaving you unable to change the layout of your renovated kitchen.
6. Recycle your kitchen worktop
Depending on your kitchen worktop material you may be surprised to find out it is easily recycled. Quartz, for example, an often popular choice of countertop, is fully recyclable and when the time is up to replace your quartz countertop, talk to your contractor or local stone distributor.
Copper worktops, another eco-friendly countertop are also completely recyclable. The metal countertop alternative, stainless steel, is the most recyclable metal on earth. If you have a local scrap shop or manufacturer you can often approach them to sell your end of life stainless steel countertop.
7. Sand, Repaint, Repeat
One of the simplest ways to get a new kitchen without any landfill is repainting your cabinets. With a few licks of paint and your kitchen can be revitalised and given a brand new life. Don’t forget to clean your cabinets and sand them down first or you could be disappointed with the outcome.
However, repainting your cabinets is a fun and easy way to breathe a new breathe into your tired kitchen without any landfill! If you do insist on a brand new kitchen, make sure that you dispose of your old kitchen sustainably.
At Sustainable Kitchens we create outstanding, high-quality kitchens with only the best materials. Our kitchens are all unique and made with sustainability in mind, if you are looking for advice don’t hesitate to contact the experts.
