The final numbers are in! It was the hottest day of the year and traffic was at it’s absolute ugliest but that did not dampen people’s passion for sustainable waste solutions!

At our Seattle Waste Alternatives and Electronics Recycling event on July 29th, Seattlites turned in 36,931 pounds of old electronics! That means that nearly 18.5 tons of garbage were collected for local, certified-responsible recycling by Total Reclaim. 

Our very esteemed guests at the event included: local green resource GreenDwelling Seattle;  the international watch-dog group The Basel Action Network; the waste-diverting countertop manufacturer Squak Mountain Stone; Cedar Grove Composting (who gave out 100 free bags of compost in 20 minutes flat); Arcade Magazine; the salvage company Second Use Building Supplies; Seattle Public Utilities; and the new-to-Seattle reusable-moving-box company Frogbox.

Visit www.ecyclewa.org for more information on how to recycle your electronics responsibly in Washington State.

Live Music was provided by the fantastic, fun gypsy-swing band Hochiwichi.

The folks of BAN showing off their program for verifying E-Waste Recyclers

It took over 7 box trucks to move all the waste that was collected.

This radio's a real old-timer!

The local recycling company, and E-Steward, Total Reclaim will be here to collect it all and take it back to their plant on 6th Avenue for processing. That’s right, all the processing gets done just blocks from our Seattle location in SODO, so you don’t have to worry about the polluting waste that we collect getting exported to another country.

  Click here to see an article and some video captured of E-Waste in Ghana.

The exportation of electronic waste to third world countries has become such a problem  for human and environmental health that the Basel Action Network (BAN) has developed a third-party-qualification program called E-Stewards. For years, BAN has been a watchdog organization, trying to ensure the responsible handling of these materials, so they are the perfect ones to be setting the standard. You can read more about E-Stewards and the other efforts of BAN’s hard-working staff by clicking here.  

If you are in the Seattle area, please join us for this fun community event!  We’ll have folks from all across the spectrum of waste alternatives to talk about what they’re working on – from an artist who uses salvaged construction materials and people who turn wastepaper into building supplies to local composters and more! If you are not in the Seattle area, you can find an E-Steward in  your area by going to www.e-stewards.org.

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Imagine if the Whole World Used Sustainable Building Practices…  

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Ecohaus believes that by switching to sustainable building practices the world could stretch our natural resources further, diminish the occurrence of many chronic health problems, promote the growth of local economies, and decrease the release of harmful greenhouse gasses. Since 1992, Ecohaus has been supplying the Pacific Northwest with building and finish materials that are based on a holistic model of sustainability, incorporating consideration for the environmental, health and local impacts of the products we choose to carry.

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When we select our products, we research the entire lifecycle–from harvesting and manufacturing, to performance and longevity,through disposal, whether it’s re-cycling, repurposing or composting if biodegradable. We look for third-party certification, salvaged, or recycled materials. We look for products that will be durable and last a long time–in fact, many of our materials will outlast their conventional counterparts. We look for products that can be easily diverted from the landfill. For example, our carpet tiles can be turned into more carpet tiles, and our decking can be turned into mulch.

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When we think about the impacts of a product on people’s health, we look for materials that are as low in toxics as possible for the people making the material as well as the people living with it. Many adhesives and finishes contain harmful toxins that can cause poor indoor air quality and lead to problems like asthma, allergies and “sick building syndrome.” We offer alternatives to these products, and people feel the difference.

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When we think about the impacts that our choice of products can have on a local community we strive to find socially responsible, sustainably minded companies to work with. We look for products that make it possible for people to lift themselves up while managing their resources responsibly. For instance, we pay a fair price for wood from certified forests to incentivize people NOT to slash and burn their resources. We work with family owned and operated businesses. And we work with owner/operators in the Pacific Northwest.

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Imagine a world where we use materials that we find close to home, where we keep our air and water clean, where our built environment helps support our natural environment – this is an “Ecohaus Future.”

Imagine if we managed our resources so that we could draw from them forever.

 Ecohaus got some big news this past Earth Day: we have received King County’s prestigious Green Globe Award for being a Leader In Market Development for Recyclable Materials! Our founder, Matt Freeman Gleason personally accepted the award from King County Councilman Dow Constantine. It was a great event! We were all inspired by hearing the stories of the other local businesses who have been forging a path toward sustainability in our region.

Ecohaus has been around for 17 years, buying and selling products that contain post-consumer and post-industrial waste. Our most popular products from recycled materials are our Paperstone Countertops (made from recycled paper) and our Ultratouch Cotton Insulation (made of the waste cotton from denim factories.) But we have lots more! Recycled glass countertops, and tiles; blow-in insulation made from recycled newspapers; flooring and countertops salvaged from old barns or barrels; flooring made from the waste cork of wine-bottle-stopper fabrication… the list goes on and on.

We are committed to carrying products with recycled content because, that way, useful material is diverted from the waste stream AND we can diminish the need for raw material. Additionally, many of these products are made locally – right here in Washington State.

To read more about what King County has to say about us, please click here.

Our Fouder and members of the marketing team with Councilmember Dow Constantine