Re-use a good sign for Goodwill - Goodwill Industries of America - Retailing & The Environment

Discount Store News, March 18, 1991

Re-Use a Good Sign for Goodwill

With "Re-Use" one of the three "Rs" of environmental efforts (along with Reduce and Recycle), Goodwill Industries of America expects cooperative efforts with retailers like Target will warrant hundreds of new Goodwill outlets in the future.

Lynn Joerger, director of retail and commercial operations at Goodwill's offices in Maryland, said the 1,200-store base, managed by its 180 local members, is rising due to local and national general merchandise and grocery chains.

Target, the Minneapolis-based discount chain, donates customer returns, damaged merchandise and other items to the local Goodwill member.

The items are then clearly marked as Goodwill merchandise--tags removed and the Goodwill name etched with an engraving tool on certain hard goods--preventing anyone from returning the item to Target for a refund. An itemized list of donations is then returned to the chain for tax or documentation purposes.

"We are set up to provide some minimal repackaging and repair of merchandise, making items that would not sell at Target appropriate for sale at Goodwill," Joerger explained.

The goods are then sold at the local Goodwill outlet, ensuring that the store's contributions benefit its own community.

In addition to recapturing merchandise that could otherwise end up in a landfill, Goodwill Industries also operates donation/recycling stations that handle the collection of newspaper, glass and plastic. Roughly one third of Goodwill membership handles these recyclables.

The combination donation and recycling stations frequently take the form of an attended donation center trailer (ADC), which handles clothing and small appliances as well as recyclables.

To date, most of the trailer locations were requested by grocery store retailers, but Joerger believes that will be changing. "More and more general merchandise retailers are becoming |green' and are looking for non-profit, locally based methods of handling retail waste," he noted. The space for the ADCs is generally donated by the shopping center developer and occupies an average of two to three parking spaces.

Sears and JC Penney are among the other national chains with which Goodwill has worked. At present, Target is the only chain that has a national agreement with Goodwill Industries.

Goodwill Industries of America generated an estimated $325 million in sales during 1990, according to Joerger.

PHOTO : Goodwill donation and recycling stations re-use items that otherwise end up in landfills.