A look behind the scenes at how one Licking/Knox Goodwill store processes donations.
When clutter starts to build up around the house, for many of us that means a trip to Goodwill. We load up our unneeded items in the car, conveniently hand them over at the drop-off door and drive away relieved to be rid of the excess while supporting a charitable organization. But have you ever wondered how donations are processed, and what happens if Goodwill cannot accept the items you donate?
I recently had the opportunity to tour one of the nine Licking/Knox Goodwill Industries, Inc. retail locations in my area with the organization’s vice president of communications. After learning more about the nonprofit’s operations, I walked away with some helpful information about the lifecycle of a donation and how to best use Goodwill as a path toward sustainability. While not every Goodwill has the same policies, restrictions or services, these are some general takeaways from my visit to consider as you think about donating to your own local store.
The end-of-life clothing, textiles and shoes that Goodwill cannot sell get shipped to recyclers.
Your favorite old top with the faint red wine stain or those pants with the broken zipper may not make it onto the sales floor, but Goodwill has a sorting process to help them get recycled. Behind the scenes at the retail location I visited is a massive warehouse buzzing with activity as workers sort each item that passes through.
When clothing donations are dropped off, garments that can be sold go on to be organized, priced and tagged. Clothing that cannot be accepted for resale due to poor condition from stains, missing buttons, holes or other wears are boxed and sent to a separate area of the warehouse where baler machines compact the materials.
When enough bales are ready for a full truckload, they are sold to Goodwill’s salvage partners in Canada where they are recycled or repurposed into new items.
Additional items like shoes, belts and purses in poor condition are also separated into individualized bales for recycling.
Goodwill Industries has a free, residential e-waste recycling partnership with Dell.
Participating Goodwill stores will take any brand of electronics in any condition (ranging from computers and monitors to printers, speakers, keyboards and cellphones) for recycling through Dell’s Reconnect program. While certain items in good working order may be resold by Goodwill, equipment that cannot be reused is recycled responsibly by Dell and turned into new products. Before donating, be sure to back up and remove any personal data on your devices.
Goodwill may not be the best place to donate used plastic toys.
Though plastic toys do make it onto the sales floor, the ones that cannot be accepted often cannot be recycled either. These items, like your child’s beloved kitchen set with the torn off stickers or that Hungry Hungry Hippo game with the broken tail lever, often go straight to the landfill. When preparing toys for donation, only donate what has been gently used. If you are uncertain what fate your more-than-gently-used toys might have, consider a toy recycling program. Mattel PlayBack (which includes Fisher-Price) and Hasbro both offer free mail-in take back programs for well-loved games and toys.
Only drop-off donations to Goodwill during open store hours.
Before you head to the nearest location, double check that they are open. Drop offs after hours often result in unforeseen weather conditions that may ruin items and compromise their potential for resale and reuse. Waste pickers may also roll by to salvage unsupervised items and pocket the proceeds. The best way to help give your donation a second life is to ensure Goodwill receives it by meeting a store employee at the drop-off door.
Donating to Goodwill really does benefit the community while helping the environment.
When we clean out our closets, basements, attics or garages—we inevitably clear out a lot of unwanted stuff. Donating to Goodwill is one low-hassle way we have the option of passing on reusable items that otherwise might end up at our curbsides on trash day. If the items are in good shape for resale, they will find a new life with someone else who can purchase them for an affordable cost. If the items cannot be resold, Goodwill recycles or makes use of what they can.
Getting continual donations processed to be sold on the retail shelves, shuffled to other locations or ready to ship for recycling takes a lot of work. While Goodwill maintains overhead costs like any business, the Licking/Knox Goodwill specifically employs around 500 people, providing jobs, training and support services to many individuals with disabilities or other barriers to employment. They also support a variety of programs many people don’t know about. In my area some of these programs include clothing requisitions for people who have an emergency need for it, a free medical equipment lending closet and a recreational horseback riding program for children with disabilities.
There’s a lot to appreciate when we support our local Goodwill. Working to integrate more sustainable practices into our lifestyles and world involves understanding our current habits and what resources are available to us. As you tackle spring cleaning this season, think about the ways Goodwill may be able to help you send away your clutter in an environmentally-sustainable way.
—Jill Span Hofbauer
If you’re interested in learning more about Goodwill’s history and roots in sustainability, check out: https://www.goodwill.org/blog/roots-of-goodwills-sustainability/
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