Seattle opens its first warehouse for salvaged lumber

May 01, 2026 / 4:32 pm

caption: Aaron Blanchard from Earthwise Architectural Salvage stands before a pile of salvaged black walnut and English elm boards in the company's new lumber salvage warehouse in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood. The warehouse is being funded by a $4 million grant from the EPA to the city of Seattle.

The city of Seattle opened its first warehouse for salvaged lumber Friday in SoDo.

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson cut a red wood “ribbon” with a chainsaw to mark the occasion.

The warehouse, operated by Earthwise Architectural Salvage, will serve as a place where lumber from the demolition or renovation of buildings is collected and sold for new construction, or to make furniture and other DIY projects.

“Reuse is better than recycling,” said Katie Kennedy, the Seattle Public utilities manager who helped obtain the grant for the city. “You are displacing the need for new materials.”

In addition to saving trees from being cut down for new lumber, the project is aimed at reducing waste and emissions.

According to Kennedy, old lumber either ends up in the dump or else is sent to processors, who might use it as “hog fuel” to burn at places like paper mills.

The project is being funded by a $4 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. The money dates back to the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which set aside $275 million for solid waste recycling infrastructure projects.

The city of Seattle received its award in 2023 and brought on Earthwise, a salvage company which operates retail warehouses throughout Washington, to lead it.

Even as the Trump administration has reduced EPA grants to states, funding for this program has not been affected, according to Dan Halpert, who leads one of the EPA’s solid waste recycling infrastructure grants programs.

“We work very hard to show that we are good stewards of this money, that the money is going in line with federal regulations and federal grant policy. We’ve been able to show the success of the program,” Halpert said.

According to Halpert, Seattle’s lumber salvage project is the only one of its kind in the country supported by the federal grant program.

caption: Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson uses a chainsaw to cut a wooden ribbon to celebrate the opening of the city's first lumber salvage warehouse. Aaron Blanchard of Earthwise assists.

The new warehouse is filled with piles of old lumber, from salvaged floor joists from the old Aberdeen Armory, to old growth Douglas fir decking from a South Seattle manufacturing plant.

“This is the heritage lumber that we are obsessed with around here,” said Aaron Blanchard, director of operations at Earthwise. “The best way to honor this finite and irreplaceable old growth wood is to make it into something beautiful and useful so it can last another century.”

Seattle has an active community of salvage operations, but making it sustainable for businesses has been a challenge for these companies, according to Andrew Lee, general manager of Seattle Public Utilities.

“Like any effort towards making our planet more sustainable, our goal of creating a local wood reuse economy requires support,” Lee said.

The $4 million grant will help pay for the warehouse’s setup, and its first three years of operation. After that, Earthwise, and the city, anticipate it will become self-sufficient.

The warehouse opens to the public this weekend.