Want to learn more about Goodwill? Our website is the best place to explore more about Goodwill. If you have questions about the organization, please contact us.
First and foremost, it’s AMAZING. Our amazing Impact Centre is the central hub for all of our sustainability initiatives and commercial service teams. With this location, we are able to provide an outlet store where 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 commercial services team creates a variety of repurposed products such as cleaning cloths and crayons. Learn more about the Impact Centre and its programs, here.
Goodwill Alberta is dedicated to keeping items out of the landfill. Therefore, all unsold items at Goodwill are shipped to other locations, stores or businesses to be sold, recycled or upcycled.
For example, any donated item that is not sold at a Goodwill thrift shop is first taken to a Goodwill outlet. If the item can’t be sold at the outlet at a discounted price, it is given a second life through the Goodwill Reuse and Recycling Program. In this case, the item is sent to a textile recycler or another company that can transform it into new materials for alternative uses.
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.
Most clothing and other donated items are successfully sold in Goodwill stores across Alberta, and internationally. With the help of other methods of selling and recycling, very little, if any, unsold clothing and other goods are thrown away.
To help keep clothing, household items and other used goods out of the landfill, Goodwill partners with local organizations to find alternative solutions. For example, Goodwill Alberta has a partnership with the University of Alberta that allows them to give clothing and household items left behind at residences a second chance.
As a result of being able to resell, repurpose or reuse nearly all items that are donated, Goodwill has an 86% diversion rate from local landfills and helps communities across the world minimize their environmental footprint. Goodwill’s sustainability practices divert over 19 million kilograms from landfills annually!
Want to learn more about Goodwill? Our website is the best place to explore more about Goodwill. If you have questions about the organization, please contact us.