Shoppers check out bathroom items at Rebuilding Exchange. The warehouse near Webster and Elston avenues sells items taken from suburban Cook County renovation jobs. (Photo by Kevin Beese/For Chronicle Media)

In Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood sits a warehouse that is a do-it-yourselfer’s paradise.

From pedestal sinks to antique stoves, Rebuilding Exchange offers anything imaginable for a home improvement project. And, unlike big box home improvement stores, everything snatched up from Rebuilding Exchange is helping the environment. The warehouse’s products are reclaimed building materials, including old-growth and new-growth lumber, doors, cabinets, windows, lighting and plumbing fixtures. Appliances, light fixtures and sinks orderly line the 25,000-square-foot warehouse.

“We keep materials out of landfills,” said Bryant Williams, senior director of Rebuilding Exchange.

Nothing goes to waste once it enters the warehouse. If the item is deemed to not have much market appeal as is, it is doctored up, used as the basis for the warehouse’s RX Made product line. The line consists of simple and functional furniture and items constructed from reclaimed and locally sourced materials. Scraps of wood are turned into bottle openers, cutting boards and coasters that are packaged and sold.

On a recent weekday, any ceiling fan in the store was going for $5.

“As we get noticed, there is a lot of word-of-mouth testimony about us,” Williams said. “People realize that we are not selling low-quality materials here.”

While working for Cook County, Williams helped create the county ordinance that brought about the need for suburban construction firms to reuse and recycle building materials. An employee of the county’s Department of Environmental Controls at the time, Williams helped craft the legislation that brought about reuse and recycling requirements.

He said contractors often bring more than the mandated 5 percent of materials for reuse.

: Bryant Williams, senior director of Rebuilding Exchange, holds tools made from repurposed wood that are part of the reuse warehouse’s RX line. Rebuilding Exchange was the first reuse center in Cook County. (Photo by Kevin Beese/For Chronicle Media)

“Contractors continue to bring material to us, but in some cases it is cost-prohibitive for them to bring (more of) the materials.” Williams said.

The county’s Demolition Debris Diversion ordinance has resulted in more than 540,000 tons of building material being recycled since its passage in 2012. In addition, another 130,000 tons of material has been reused.

“Construction and demolition debris represent the largest single category of waste in Cook County,” said Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. “Considering the U.S. EPA has found that, nationally, 40 percent of what ends up in our landfills is building waste, these results are a giant step forward for the county’s effort to reduce waste.”

The ordinance requires that all demolition and renovation projects in suburban Cook (excluding sheds and garages) recycle 70 percent (by weight) of debris and that residential projects also demonstrate that 5 percent (by weight) is diverted for reuse.

Rebuilding Exchange was the first reuse facility in the county, being established in 2009. Since then, similar facilities opened in Evanston in 2012 and Maywood in 2014.

Williams would like to be part of a fourth facility serving the south suburbs.

“I feel strongly that those communities could support a facility. Right now, materials from those communities need to be brought to Maywood,” Williams said. “There is no facility available south of I-55. My plan is to be the guy who brings a facility to those communities.”

Williams is also hopeful that at some point the city of Chicago is included in the reuse and recycling requirements.

The Rebuilding Exchange leader said he finds it funny that big box home improvement stores are tweaking their product lines to be more like his reuse facility.

“They are mimicking what we do. They are carrying things that look like old growth,” Williams said. “Why not have actual old growth lumber at a fraction of the cost?”

He said contractors are not just donating materials to the warehouse. Many shop the facility to get items for clients

“A lot come in regularly,” Williams said. “They know we put things out that are high quality and reasonable.”

Rebuilding Exchange is located at 1740 W. Webster Ave., Chicago. Warehouse hours and other information can be found at http://rebuildingexchange.org/.

— Construction waste finds new life in —