PITTSBURGH

The nonprofit warehouse is like a thrift store for building materials.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- In an old lighting manufacturing plant on the east end of the city, savvy renovators can find bargains on building materials ranging from floor tile to roof shingles and just about everything in between.
And yes, that includes the kitchen sink. Several models, in fact, available for about $10 to $20.
The store, Construction Junction, is one of a growing trend of what is known as building materials reuse centers. The centers help keep useable materials out of landfills, provide jobs, and donors may get to claim the donations as a tax deduction. Often, part of their mission is to serve low-income communities or provide job-training for the disabled.
In a way, they're like thrift stores. But instead of slightly worn fashions from past seasons, they stock cabinetry, bathroom fixtures, hardware and various contractor overrun. The items are donated mostly by homeowners or contractors from renovations and can range from older items to surplus materials from new projects.
Repeat customer
Gary Burdick lives near Construction Junction and finds himself stopping in a couple of times a week to browse.
"They get new stuff in and it goes quick," Burdick said. He found an old oak screen door that matched the style of the old house he recently purchased.
Burdick says one reason he shops there is that he thinks things were built better long ago. Another is that he likes using something that might otherwise have been garbage.
That's Construction Junction in a nutshell, said Michael Gable, its executive director.
"It helps people do the right thing," he said. "People don't want to throw away useable materials."
While people may not want to, it can be hard for them to find a place for their goods. Places like Construction Junction make it easier, Gable said.
It opened in 1999 after developing from an idea born when Lou Tamler, then with the environmental group Pennsylvania Resources Council was approached by a contractor looking for a place to donate useable siding from a renovation.
The council wasn't set up to handle such donations, but Construction Junction grew out Tamler's research.
Others
More such centers are opening around the country.
"It's definitely a growing trend," said Lauren Maddox, the donations program coordinator for the Reuse Development Organization, or ReDO.
The Indianapolis-based organization promotes reuse and offers technical and educational assistance to help reuse centers get started.
While Maddox said she had no figure on the number of such centers, "Our goal is to have a building materials reuse center, a furniture center and some kind of electronics center in every major city."
Baltimore and Minneapolis have long had centers, and both are considered reuse pioneers.
Leslie Kirkland is executive director at The Loading Dock in Baltimore and ReDO's board vice president.
"We're told we're the first successful nonprofit like this," Kirkland said.
Over the years, the mission of reuse centers has evolved, Kirkland said. When the Loading Dock opened in 1984, its mission was that of social justice by serving low- and moderate-income families.
Now, she said, reuse centers are environmentally conscious.
A great benefit of reuse centers, Kirkland said, is seeing people who otherwise might not be able to afford to undertake a renovation project do so because they can get the needed materials affordably.