Being Green

When you shop or donate items to Goodwill you are greeted by staff in shirts that say "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" that share our message of environmental sustainability. The idea of being green has always been an underlying philosophy of our business and extends throughout our entire organization.

Did you know that Goodwill is one of the greenest organizations on the planet? You may not realize it, but when you donate or shop at Goodwill, you set in motion a whole series of earth friendly activities. Every item you donate or purchase at a Goodwill store is one less item thrown away. It's instant recycling. The fact is, Goodwill was green before it became the trend that it is today, and we are proud of our commitment to preserving the environment.

Goodwill Facts

Did you know that we kept 76,796,370 pounds of clothing and other items from going into landfills in 2011? These materials consisted of:

• 4,019,598 pounds of computers
• 3,836,968 pounds of metal
• 1,783,523 pounds of cardboard
• 586,017 pounds of purses
• 1,267,780 pounds of shoes
• 4,005,079 pounds of books
• 34,234,130 pounds of textile clothing
• 3,461,293 pounds of televisions
• 97,750 pounds of bicycles
• 10,254 pounds of cell phones
• 23,493,978 pounds of miscellaneous items sold in stores
  
  

Plus, all of your donated items have additional value to Goodwill because the proceeds are used to support our mission of putting disabled or disadvantaged people to work.

So why not help people in your community, as well as the environment and shop and donate at Goodwill!