My books to help you in your recycling adventure.

My name is Harry Bohna and I began my recycling adventure as a residential contractor/renovator in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada over 30 years ago. If you are as dedicated to the 3Rs of waste management: Reduce | Reuse | Recycle as I have become as a result of this experience, you will find all sortos of information and links about recycling, especially used building materials, here. I have also published 2 books on recycling; The Everyday Guide to Recycling and The Golden Rules, a guide to starting up a profitable recycling business, supprted by a complete business-plan template to help you to get started.... enjoy your visit here, and please let me know your thoughts on recycling; after all, we all share the same small planet.

In the 1970's the market for fixing and selling real estate was very tight. When fixing a property, you had to watch every penny you spent, if you wanted to make a profit. With profit margins always on my mind, I would go to garage sales, auctions and scour the newspaper for anything that I could use on a renovation site. Buying used is not scientific, just common sense. I could buy good quality materials at a fraction of their cost. I could not figure out why anyone would want to get rid of these re-useable materials, but they do! Even when I had no immediate use for these items, I knew they would eventually become invaluable on upcoming projects. Heck, sometimes material became stock piled. So, I would go out and buy a real wreck of a house to cut the material stock down. In a few years I was buying properties at a fast rate, all which needed repairs. Consequently, this led to a need for a lot more materials. Eventually, I compiled enough material to warrant a warehouse. I would have my tradesmen use the materials in the warehouse first and then as a last resort go buy new merchandise at the lumberyard. It was not uncommon for one of the trades to ask if they could buy a set of cupboards or a toilet for personal use. It was the unexpected profit I made from those items that planted the idea to sell a line of used building products to other contractors, tradesmen and the public.

As with most things, it was not until 10 years later that I finally opened a used retail store. By that time I had renovated 200 properties over 12 year, and was ready for a new challenge. So, I rented a warehouse on commercial land and acquired all the proper licenses in about a day! From the first day I made sales and it has not stopped since. It was not luck; my renovation experience had given me the discipline to only purchase the material I would use myself. The key to my success was, and is, house basics. Every house eventually needs repairs to windows, doors, cupboards, plumbing and electrical. Always keeping these base items will always result in constant clients. As recycling became popular in the 1990's, so did Happy Harry's Used Building Materials. Other businessmen and corporations took notice and wanted to take part in the profitable recycling effort. Soon inquires were flowing in from all parts of the country and around the world!

Construction waste accounts for 20-30% of a cities landfill waste, even today. Happy Harry's has become the front line attack unit, were the average person can take an active part in waste reduction. It became a new adventure to educate the public on construction waste recycling. It also became my mission to show people how to set-up and operate a successful used building supply stores, vital to a citiy's recycling program. I franchised stores in Canada, which allowed me to network products coast to coast. There have been 24 stores set-up and operated under the Happy Harry's name, and numerous other operations that have benefited from my private meeting, consultation, and seminars. One U.S. charitable organization, Habitat For Humanity, operates over 100 and counting, used building materials outlets accross the US with their operations copied from my original Winnipeg store.