Recycling Garage Doors and Garage Door Openers

Renovating? Upgrading? Garage door or opener simply worn out? These are common reasons for removing your existing garage door and/or garage door opener. In some cases, you’ll have a contractor that can take care of hauling away your old equipment, but if you find yourself responsible for recycling and disposing of the old door or motor, or if you’re DIY-savvy, here are some tips for properly recycling or even upcycling the materials that once occupied the most prominent entry to your home.

Garage Door

• Recycle—metal (steel or aluminum) from doors and hardware can be recycled and reused. Find your local recycling center that handles metal so that this great reusable resource can be processed for new products.
• Home décor—there are numerous creative uses for the complete garage door or even just one or more panels. Some of the more popular are headboards, folding screens/room dividers, wall features, picture frames, blackboards for the kids, and more. Check out headboard ideas or other interior garage door repurposing ideas on Pinterest.
• Yard décor—garage door panels make great frames for raised planting beds, outdoor privacy screens, and benches, and more. Bob Vila offers some more ideas (both indoor and outdoor), and there’s a wealth of outdoor garage door repurposing ideas on Pinterest.
• Donate—if your door is still in good condition, consider donating to Habitat for Humanity or another building project. You can even itemize the value of the donation on your taxes if the organization is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Check with your local chapter to see if they are receiving donations of garage doors at this time. If they are not, they may have recommendations of other organizations that are.

Garage Door Opener

• Repurpose—for the mechanically-inclined, your old (but still working) garage door opener can be a motor to power a number of projects, including a “dumb waiter” for transporting groceries from the garage to the kitchen (for example) or any number of creative motorized inventions. Just be careful about asking Redditors for ideas—you’ll get quite the sarcastic response!
• Reuse—whether your opener is working or not, there are parts you can salvage for other uses. This person reused the garage door opener’s cover as a useful container, in addition to saving screws, the pull cord, and any other parts that were useful.
• Recycle—if you no longer have need for your opener (especially if it no longer functions), then recycling is the most responsible thing to do. Remember that there are components that could be harmful if thrown away in the regular trash (such as batteries), so consult your local recycling center for the best way to dispose of the opener so recyclable parts can be harvested.

When replacing your garage door and/or opener, you should definitely make sure your garage door installers will recycle any unused parts. But with a little creative DIY effort, you can also reuse some of the pieces from your garage door system to create some amazing functional indoor and outdoor décor!