Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

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.

Goodwill Facts

Did you know that we kept 65,691,620 pounds of clothing and other items from going into landfills in 2010? These materials consisted of:

  • 4,300,070 pounds of computers
  • 3,650,667 pounds of metal
  • 1,493,379 pounds of cardboard
  • 490,298 pounds of purses
  • 2,366,749 pounds of shoes
  • 3,877,900 pounds of books
  • 33,136,946 pounds of textile clothing
  • 1,849,257 pounds of televisions
  • 14,526,354 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!