Recycle old plumbing fixtures

You call around to see if anyone is willing to take them. Canvas your poor relations to see if any of them
needs a "new" fixture set. Around here, there is very little demand for used bath fixtures unless they
are very very old and have that "antique charm". As high as disposal costs are getting, I would be tempted
to smash them up into little pieces and bury them in a hole in my backyard!
 
If they are like a lot of "old" fixtures, they have almost NO value other than to scrap them. Put them in your dumptster, or garbage bin, even if you have to break them to do it.
 
I was afraid of this. I could contact Habitat for Humanity or many the Salvation Army. Can old sinks be recovered with porcelin? Mine is chipped and rusting. The toilette is probably 15 years old and the other is over 50 years old. Can an old unit be made into a low flow unit?
 
A rusty sink, unless the form is something really special, should just be junked. It would cost a lot more than a new one to clean up and refire with a new coat of porcelain. A toilet cannot successfully be made into a low-flow unit...some manufacturers tried that way back when, and they were disasters which gave low-flow toilets a bad name that persists today. It takes a good ground-up design to get a good performing low-flow toilet. It can make an eclectic planter...otherwise, junk it, too.
 
Habitat for Humanity only takes the newer fixture that meet current plumbing code.
They won't take the old toilets that use 3.5 or more gallons.

If someone has replaced a toilet and gotten a rebate, the terms of the rebate are that the toilet is taken out of service and made unusable. They don't want to send a check to remove a water waster if you are going to reinstall it anyway.

Can an old toilet be made to use a little water as the current ones?
NO.
The trapway design between the old and the new is completely different.
 
How do you say, "Landfill?" Sorry, but that's really about the only destination for them. Recycling is a great thing to do, but just won't work for everything.
 
If you were in Texas I would be tempted to tongue-in-cheek suggest you to do what everyone else there apparently did: dump them on your (or your neighbor's) property somewhere. When I was looking for some acreage there every piece of land I looked at had a broken toilet or two or three on it somewhere. When I finally found some good land without a broken toilet I considered it a sign from above and I bought the tract.

The Habitat ReStores were taking the early 90's 1.6 gpf types. I didn't think they were worth much but they quoted me a value and I took it as charitable donation for tax purposes. I was just glad to be rid of them.
 
Set the toilet out in your front yard and plant flowers in it.

pflower17.jpg

:p
 
Last edited:
Somewhere I have read that in some local they were experimenting with grinding them up and I think using them as aggregate but I cannot bring the details to mind.
 
Go to your local garden supply store. Ask around if anyone would like a new planter. There are some people around here who have put flowers in them and put it in the front yard.
 
yep.. stated two posts ago (with a picture of the hideous thing too) If that were in my neighbor's yard, i would make sure it 'disappeared' in the night somehow.
 
We just replaced our old toilet with a Cadet 3 and like it very much, works just great, and much easier to clean than the old ones. Flushes quickly and cleanly.

Wondering how to recyle ours too, as it costs a lot to put them into our local dump. We can pay to have it taken, or we can sneak it into a dumpster nearby at a house being remodeled some night.
But thats not really cricket. Maybe set it up in the yard as a planter as the cute picture above. Way way out towards the woods back of our garden would be the best.

Have to say, that about 45 years ago when my brother was a freshman in college, they got some ropes and hoisted an old toilet onto the ROOF of one of the dorms. It stayed there for a good while before the college figured out how to get the thing down safely. The boys never got caught, somewhere I have a picture of it up there, if I can find it, will post it here.
 
Then bury it, I have a neighbour who had a Chevy V8 engine he took out of his boat, and couldnt figure out how to get rid of it, so he dug a HUGE hole in the back yard and pushed the engine into it, and buried the whole doggone thing.
Good way to get rid of a toilet too. We could do this, but our grandsons would discover the hole and dig it up again, thinking they had found a treasure chest.
 
Set the toilet out in your front yard and plant flowers in it.
Chacher_Chick,

That's just what I would have said, and now you went and said it first. I know it's a good idea, because I did it already. I musta got about twenty of them outside in the front yard. My wife plants flowers like roses and yellow ones, Marigolds? I get the most looks from my neighbors when they see how pretty it all looks. Even the postman has a big smile on his face when he sees them. Mad Plumber

garden-toilets.jpg
 
OK, you win, I will see if my husband will pop it into the nearest dumpster at night, put it way out back of our garden for a planter, or bust it up and bury it in the woods behind our house.
Lets see how my family votes on this.
 
v8 engines you can give away and someone will take it as it actually has scrap value. used commodes with skid marks=0 dollars
 

That's just what I would have said, and now you went and said it first. I know it's a good idea, because I did it already. I musta got about twenty of them outside in the front yard. My wife plants flowers like roses and yellow ones, Marigolds? I get the most looks from my neighbors when they see how pretty it all looks. Even the postman has a big smile on his face when he sees them. Mad Plumber

you get the most looks from your neighbors because their property value just diminished....
 
Back
Top