Goodwill® Encourages Consumers to Harness the Environmental Power of Reusing Goods
ROCKVILLE, MD — On this 43rd annual Earth Day, the environment has become an increasingly complex world of climate change, carbon offsets and emissions guidelines. While these big-picture issues can often seem far removed from everyday life, Goodwill Industries International encourages consumers to remember the widespread impact the simple act of donating goods can make.
For more than 110 years, Goodwill has been an entrepreneurial leader, environmental pioneer and social innovator of the “reduce, reuse, repurpose” practice. Goodwill diverts more than two billion pounds of clothing and household goods every year from landfills by recovering the value in people’s unwanted material goods and creating job-training opportunities for people in need of work. In addition, Goodwill and Dell’s free computer recycling program, Dell Reconnect, allows people to make electronics donations knowing it’s good for people and the planet. With more than 2,500 Goodwill locations participating, the Dell Reconnect program provides people with an opportunity to simply drop off used electronics (any brand in any condition) at a participating Goodwill location, and the trained staff will inspect the equipment and either reuse, refurbish or recycle it. More than 253 million pounds of computer electronics have been responsibly recycled since the partnership began in 2004.
In 2010, Goodwill launched the Donate Movement, a corporate social responsibility platform and public awareness movement that encourages consumers to think of donating used goods as just as essential to environmental responsibility as recycling paper and plastics. Via the Donate Movement microsite (donate.goodwill.org), users can calculate the social impact of their own clothing and household item donations through the patent-pending donation impact calculator, while a new feature on the site tracks how many pounds of usable goods Goodwill has diverted from landfills since January 2012 — currently totaling more than three billion.
“With Earth Day now four decades old, more Americans than ever before are concerned about environmental issues,” said Jim Gibbons, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International. “Yet it is easy to lose track of the ways that one person can make a difference. For more than a century, Goodwill has linked protecting the environment to helping people earn paychecks, support their families and strengthen their communities.”
The Donate Movement website lets consumers see how much of an impact they can make on the planet by donating used goods. The website also provides a step-by-step guide on how to organize a donation drive at a campus, school or other location, gives bloggers the opportunity to raise awareness by joining the Donate Movement network, and provides resources on where to bring used goods. For more information, visit donate.goodwill.org.
