Recycling Center

[Greg Cuetara]

I am looking to make a recycling center in my kitchen. Don't really have room to put anything under cabinet or in the cabinets etc. right now I have a few cardboard boxes just in the kitchen to hold stuff but would like something a little nicer and enclosed if possible. I tried searching on here and also on the web but havn't had much luck in finding any ideas and / or pictures. I guess I could just buy a few more trash cans but was thinking I could make something nice. Thinking about a piece about 12" deep, 36-40" high and about the same width.

Thanks,
Greg

[Kevin Godshall]

I've built several stand alone base cabinets that housed plastic trash cans, either for trash disposal or for recycling purposes. Nothing more than a standard base cabinet, but with the bottom as a large drawer, instead of a hinged door. (The door was actually an oversized drawer front). I used full extension 100 lb drawer slides and, in some cases, made an actual drawer at the bottom, into which the trash can sat, or a hanging piece, through which the trash can was inserted. Depended upon customer preference.

One thing I found out, was that I needed to buy my trash can before I started my build. Assuming I could find a standard size trash can (dimensionally), or that I could find one to fit after the fact, resulted in deconstruction and rebuilding. Now I buy the can, and then dimension the cabinet to contain it.

Will try to dig up some pix and post.

[Greg Cuetara]

Kevin,
Thanks for the thoughts. I was half thinking it could be a small cabinet with pull out drawers but just wanted to see if anyone else had any ideas.
Thanks,
Greg

[Kevin Godshall]

Here is a picture of the first attempt at building a recycling cabinet. The one thing I didn't like, was that it put stress on the top part of the door (where the handle is). Still looking for pictures of the evolution of this cabinet, where I put the drawer slide at the same height as the handle and had the trash can "hanging" inside. (Kind of a drawer with a hole cut in it).

[Jamie Buxton]

Here's the design drawing for a recycling center I built, but didn't get pics of. It is a stand-alone piece of furniture. The three bottom drawers contain plastic trash cans, so recycling can be separated at the point of use. As Kevin suggests, the slides are near the altitude of the pulls. The silver structure on the top is a standard chrome kitchen shelf. It is used in this kitchen for a large collection of cookbooks. The woodwork is mostly maple plywood with solid-lumber edgebanding, but the countertop is solid lumber. The countertop is 36" off the floor, and the overall height is 82".