Clearing out the shed. How to be environmentally friendly ?

[ikonia]

guys,

I'm about to clear out my shed which is of a reasonable size completly.

I have a LOT of metal in the shed, tool boxes, work tools, metal bars etc, a LOT of wood, some useful, some not, some loft insulation and various other bits of junk.

My first thought was to rent a skip, dump it. Then I thought about trying to be responsible as this is a fair ammount of junk.

I can take this down the tip to the recyling center, but the sheer ammount of effort of loading stuff into the car, driving down backup, loading etc would take 100's of trips, so I'm looking for ways to shift this responsibly.

So far my thoughts are.

1.) Wood - seperate to usable, non-usable, use some to fuel my fire, look for something like freecycle for people with building needs for the rest.

2.) Metal - call a scrap guy ? there is a lot and its not really usable, all tatty and crap.

3.) general crap - either smaller skip and skip it, or trips to dump.


Are there any other options, or more responsible ways to deal with this, I'm open to spending a bit of cash to do this properly

[greenalien]

General - put as much as possible on Ebay. Put minimum bid as 1p and make sure that it's clear that the buyer must collect it. It's surprising what people want, and the disposal cost to you will be minimal - you might even make a few quid!

Wood - Re-use or pass on to someone else for re-use if possible. If it's free of paint and preservative, burn it - eco friendly free heating. Please don't burn wood that has been treated with wood preservative or has old paint on it. Tip is the only option for this.

Metal - scrap has become increasingly valuable recently, find your nearest scrap dealer and take it there - rent a van for a day if there's lots to shift. Aluminium and copper are particularly in demand!

[ikonia]

the ebay idea is interesting, but to be honest, I'm not interested in people coming to the house for weeks or waitng for people to turn up to collect, I'd rather get this sorted at a weekend as I've got plans for the shed that this is holding up.

Of course I will only burn the non-painted stuff, but the comment is appriciated.

I'll get on the phone to the scap mechant see if any of of this is any use to him. Thank you for this.

[Funkstar]

Any friends with vans? trailers? large estate cars?

Many local councils also have collection services for large items, might be worth looking into.

[UltraMagnus]

i would say offer the lot on freecycle, within about an hour you will have 50 emails asking you if they can come and pick it up...

[kickstart 1]

I would second Freecycle , you would be suprised at what folk will want and take ..and quickly!