When Goodwill can’t sell donated clothes, they use various alternative options to keep the clothes from reaching the landfill.
Luckily, clothing is easy to recycle or upcycle. If Goodwill can’t sell clothing donations in-store, on its online thrift store or at a Goodwill outlet, the clothes are often sold to a textile recycler or other salvage vendor.
These recyclers use the unsold clothing in various ways. For example, it may be cut up and used for different purposes or processed and recycled into a fibre filling for use in furniture or insulation. With the help of these alternative methods, Goodwill is able to keep millions of pounds of usable goods from reaching the landfill each year.
You can donate sheets and towels at Goodwill Donation Centres across Alberta. With 25 used clothing store donation centres to choose from, there’s guaranteed to be a location to donate used items near you.
Drop off donations at our thrift store donation centres in:
When donating goods to our thrift store (like sheets and towels), please ensure the items are new or gently used. In addition, sheets, towels and clothing donations should be laundered before they are donated to our second-hand store.
Unfortunately, Goodwill does not have a pick-up service due to infrastructure and services not being available. If you would still like to donate and require a pick-up service, please contact College H.U.N.K.S. Hauling Junk and Removal. Please be aware College H.U.N.K.S. is a private enterprise and a fee will be associated with a donation pick-up. They will pick up items, including appliances, furniture, exercise equipment and more and deliver these donations to a Goodwill donation centre.
College H.U.N.K.S. Hauling picks up donations in the following areas.
Thanks to this pickup service, donating goods to a thrift store has never been so convenient!
Clothes that should not be donated to a second hand store include ripped, stained, damaged or dirty items. You should not donate used items and clothes in poor condition because these items cannot be resold. Instead, damaged or dirty clothes should be recycled, upcycled or disposed of.
In addition, for health and safety reasons, some types of children’s clothes should not be donated. This includes:
Remember that although some clothes should not be donated to a used clothing store, this doesn't mean your clothing donation must go to the landfill! Used clothing can often be repurposed. So, please try to recycle or upcycle damaged, dirty or disallowed clothing items before putting them in the garbage.
For a comprehensive list, please visit our GOOD Donations vs. Not-so-GOOD donations page.
Yes, you have to wash clothes before donating them to a second hand store. Clothing donations should also be new or in good condition.
If you donate used items and clothing that is not washed and dried, it may need to be disposed of. This is unfortunate - especially if you wanted your used clothing to find a new home! However, this protocol is necessary to protect our staff and customers.
Please Note: Although unwashed clothing donations cannot be sold at Goodwill used clothing stores, we do our best to keep items out of the landfill. Therefore, instead of tossing unwashed clothes in the garbage, we send these items to textile recyclers whenever possible.
Wondering - where can I take an old clothes donation near me? Check out the Goodwill donation locations above to find out where to drop off donations at a thrift store near you.
Goodwill Industries of Alberta only has donation bins with partner eco-stations and landfills. You can see a full list of list of where Goodwill Donation bins are located by visiting the where to donate page.
Donation bin donations are processed and priced before being put on the shelf. At Goodwill, our staff sorts through donated items and removes anything that cannot be sold, including damaged and soiled clothes.
Part of our mission at Goodwill is to prevent clothing and other goods that can be repurposed or upcycled from reaching the landfill. Therefore, clothing donations that cannot be sold at our used clothing stores are sent to textile recyclers or salvage vendors. There, these items are processed and used for various alternative purposes. For example, fibre filling, insulation, etc. So, when you donate used items and clothes to Goodwill, you can be sure they will be put to good use!
You can donate used baby items at a Goodwill Donation Centre near you. Goodwill’s used clothing store donation centre locations and opening hours are listed above. Stop by any time during our operating hours to donate used items or drop off clothing donations!
Goodwill accepts the following used baby items:
Unfortunately, we cannot accept these used baby items for health and safety reasons:
Please Note: The lists above are not comprehensive. If you are unsure whether a used baby item can be donated to our second hand store, please call us at 1-866-927-1414. Alternatively, visit one of our donation centres near you, and our staff will be happy to help with item and clothing donation questions!
If you would like to seek out a second option for donating baby items, we strongly urge you to visit Basically Babies.
You can donate sheets and towels at Goodwill Donation Centres across Alberta. With over 30 used clothing store donation centres to choose from (plus donation bins at local eco-stations, throw n' go stations and landfills), there’s guaranteed to be a location to donate used items near you.
Drop off donations at our thrift store donation centres in:
When donating goods to our thrift store (like sheets and towels), please ensure the items are new or gently used. In addition, sheets, towels and clothing donations should be laundered before they are donated to our second hand store.
From our commitment to sustainability and growth initiatives, which we continuously improve on each year. Goodwill diverts over 19,000,000 kilograms from landfills annually, and this number grows each year! This means that all items donated to Goodwill, 86% of all items will avoid going to the landfill. Thanks to our sustainability action plan and the consideration of Albertans we are able to continue to create an impact. You can learn about our sustainability initiatives, achievements, and financials through our Annual Report. Read more here.
First and foremost, it’s AMAZING. Our amazing Impact Centre is the central hub for all of our sustainability initiatives and outlet store. At this location, you can purchase last chance items by the pound, and a furniture store that has an abundance of pieces at low prices.
On top of our retail outlets, we house the Repair for Good program which upcycles broken and discarded furniture, we also sort, break down, and provide plastic to vendors who create new products, and our Goodwill @ Work team creates a variety of repurposed products such as cleaning cloths and crayons. Learn more about the Impact Centre and its programs, here.
We have launched an Impact Calculator to provide tangible numbers on the huge impact that repurposing and recycling your items can create. You can input the quantity of clothing, accessories, housewares, and furniture you plan to donate or have donated in the past to get a calculated score.
This score will show you the environmental effect by calculating the potential pounds of goods you have diverted from the landfills. You will also get a calculated number of hours that your donation has the potential to provide our mission’s programs and services used to place people with disabilities into new jobs & careers.
Try out the Impact Calculator here.
You most certainly can! Goodwill has partnered with Quantum Lifecycle to provide electronics recycling across the province. This partnership allows us to accept your broken or unusable electronics, keeping them out of the landfills, and allowing you a safe and easy way to dispose of them.
Quantum Lifecycle is able to recycle items such as laptops, cellphones, tablets, various styles of TVs and monitors, printers, AV Equipment, stereo systems, and more.
Thrifting helps the environment significantly. Both donating to Goodwill and buying used clothes and other items help to keep these goods from going to landfills. This results in less landfill waste and reduced pollution. Goodwill diverts more than 86% of all items donated from landfills. Therefore, thrifting to help the environment, with Goodwill means you are helping to reduce your community’s environmental footprint.
At the same time as helping the environment, donating and buying used goods at Goodwill helps people in your community with disabilities. Goodwill Alberta employs Albertans with disabilities and uses funds from its sales to support its mission. In fact, 90% of all revenues are used to help support this mission of helping Albertans with disabilities gain employment.