Don’t forget free samples from manufacturers. It’s normally a one-time thing for any given address, but it is a great way to test and decide if you want to spend $ on unknown products.
Also, find out if your local landfill has a haz-mat recycling program. I can get free paint at our local landfill at their recycling center on “Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off” days, every friday and saturday. When I lived in Boulder, CO., CHaRM (the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials) was open five days a week. Free pints, gallons, 5-gallon tubs of house paint, free spraypaint, free cleaners, free metal polish, automotive fluids, you name it. Incredible resource.
Definitely thrift shops for belts and leather jackets and denim. Hit all the interior design shops and ask for old sample packs. There is a granite and marble shop that has piles of off cuts for the taking. Need reworking. Old books.
If you go to a store that sells good cigars, they will have nice wood cigar boxes. Depending on the store they might give them away or sell them really cheap. They can make nice jewelry/trinket boxes or broken up for other projects.
ReSource 2000 (as it used to be called) used to be separate from CHaRM (which yes, is operated by eco-cycle), but next door on 63rd. They moved Resource over to Arapahoe a few years back, sounds like they may have moved CHaRM over there now as well. ReSource is not free, but very cheap. It is a pretty incredible spot, they have doors and windows for days, and they have a pretty big tool library too: hand tools, power tools, weed whackers, all sorts. I wish there was a ReSource in my town. Also a McGuckins.
I also have a huge outlet mall in my area. The dumpster diving there is primo for packaging material cast offs, broken things and just a general hodge podge of many different types of stores. Definitely an angle to selling objects would be the “made from 100% good junk thrown-away”. It would be a good way to bone up on materials science.
If you are near a university, make a note of the end-of-semester move-out dates. Dorm dumpster diving can net you some pretty nice, one-year old products.
I would change this to “100% Green Premium Up-cycled Materials”
Consumers like “recycled content” but shy away from “trash/junk/thrown out” even if its all the same thing.
