The small things come naturally by now: Recycle the newspapers, the cans and bottles, the orange-juice cartons. But what about a whole house? That's what Ann Jackson asked herself when her home in Severna Park, Maryland, was damaged beyond repair by the floods that followed Hurricane Isabel in September 2003. Jackson and her co-owners were amazed to find that recycling the debris not only made them feel good -- it actually saved money.

Looking for ways to avoid dumping her old home into a landfill, Jackson was referred to the Loading Dock (www.loadingdock.org), a Baltimore nonprofit which, since 1984, has been a clearinghouse for reusable and surplus building materials. Its 21,000 square feet of warehouse space are filled with items such as paint, lumber, doors, cabinets, moldings, and Jacuzzis, making it a kind of eco-Home Depot. But the Loading Dock doesn't disassemble houses; for that, it referred Jackson to REX, a company in Annapolis, Maryland.

REX was able to salvage and recycle almost everything in the house, from the toilets to the windows to the floorboards. The company's vice president, Steve Verill, started doing this work nine years ago and was instantly hooked. "I'm a big recycler," he says, "and I liked what I was doing by helping someone and not throwing stuff away. Plus, I thought, hey, there could be a market here." He was right: For deconstructing Jackson's 3,500-square-foot house, REX charged $9,900. Last year the company kept at least 465 tons of debris out of landfills, donating a million dollars' worth of materials to the Loading Dock alone. The Loading Dock itself has recycled some 33,000 tons, donating much of it to low- and moderate-income families and community projects. In the process, it has spawned imitators in a number of other cities.

In addition to paying REX's fee, Jackson needed to bring in Dumpsters to remove what couldn't be recycled. That brought the total cost to $13,475. But thanks to federal tax incentives, Jackson and her co-owners were able to take a sizable deduction, using IRS Form 8283. This brought them an $11,000 refund. Final net cost of the operation: about $2,500 -- much less than the $7,000 to $8,000 Jackson was quoted for a conventional demolition job. Money saved, a clear conscience, and everyone benefits: What could be better?
-- Joel Gershon