Reface your kitchen and save money, time and the environment!
Refacing (recycling your old cabinets) is a sensible option. Unless major layout changes are going to be made with your kitchen cabinets, refacing makes both ecological and economic sense. New cabinet boxes can be installed where needed, using the same custom made doors being put on the refaced cabinets. How much waste is involved with tearing out your old cabinets, and throwing them away? On a weight basis, about 1/3 of the cabinet is in the doors. Which means refacing cuts environmental waste by 2/3. But that's not all. Since new cabinet boxes don't have to be manufactured when you reface your kitchen, you are saving the trees and pollution that go into making up the replacement cabinet boxes. Consider this:
- Most new cabinets are made of a heavy compressed mixture of chipped wood and chemicals.
- The manufacturer of each new cabinet contributes to environmental pollution. And the waste has to be hauled to the landfill (using fuel for hauling) and put in the dump.
- New cabinets, and the raw materials of which they are made, involve transporting the new cabinets several times, typically over long distances, utilizing Diesel fuel.
By recycling the major components of your existing kitchen, through cabinet refacing, you will contribute to the growing movement towards environmentally responsible building and remodeling practices.
