Goodwill of Greater Grand Rapids Converts Donated Products into Reuse and Recycling Market Value

With its mission of changing lives and communities through the power of work, Goodwill Industries of Greater Grand Rapids is dedicated to having a positive environmental impact on its local community through the responsible management of material donations. Goodwill’s goal is to extract the most value from the donations received and ensure that the end-of-life of many of those products find their way into reuse and recycling markets.  

In Grand Rapids, Goodwill manages 18 traditional retail stores and an Outlet Center, with annual revenues of over $20 million. Retail stores track dated items through colored tags, which are set by date to pull off racks and send to the Outlet Center. On average, 20%-25% of incoming donated materials sell in retail stores, with the remaining 75%-80% sent to the Outlet Center. The Outlet Center located in Grandville processes unsold retail store materials and sells them by the pound while high value materials are to be sold online. Goodwill’s online sales portal, shopgoodwill.com, lists items from all Goodwill locations and is available for sale nationwide. Online sales from materials collected at Grandville generate approximately $2 million in sales annually.

Items like toys and games are sorted and sold in bulk.

Materials such as clothing, linens, and housewares identified as low value are sold per pound to public shoppers at the Outlet Center. Items that do not sell at the Outlet Center are sorted by product type and sold in bulk into specific reuse markets, including jackets, footwear, clothing accessories, electronics, books, records, movies, games, toys, athletic equipment, housewares, small appliances, decorations, tools, domestics, and furniture. 

“Goodwill continually searches for new markets to reuse difficult to sell materials in bulk, as this process has made a significant impact on our diversion efforts for items that would otherwise remain unsold at both our retail stores and the Outlet Center, and don’t have the economic feasibility to be sold internationally,” says Nick Carlson, Vice President of Donated Goods Operations. 

Leftover clothing is sold to developing countries at a highly discounted rate, contributing to the 6 million pounds of clothing diverted from landfills by international sales annually.

Clothing that is unable to be sold domestically at retail stores, the Outlet Center, and in specific reuse markets is sold internationally to developing countries at a significantly discounted rate. International clothing sales make up for over 6 million pounds diverted from landfill annually, and are baled to reduce space and cost for shipping. Outlet center onsite and market sales, as well as international sales from Outlet Center materials, account for over $2 million in revenue annually.

In total, Goodwill  processes over 24 million pounds of material donations annually into retail, reuse and recycling markets, and has a diversion rate of over 80%. Materials that are unable to be reused domestically or internationally are recycled, including cardboard, paper, plastic and metal.

Goodwill of Greater Grand Rapids’ process to sort and recycle centralized unsold retail store items at the Grandville Outlet Center for resale and reuse in onsite, online, international, and recycling markets has proven to effectively and efficiently increase sales, streamline processing methods, and divert waste from West Michigan landfills. Goodwill’s next focus is to maximize its efficiency and timing in material sorting, and to find markets for currently unsellable items to find value if recycling is not an option. Goodwill hopes these process and market adjustments will help the organization improve to its zero waste to landfill goal of 87% diversion. 

“When you think of Goodwill, you think of storefronts and free donations with low cost retail sale items. We hope those in the community get an in depth look into all of the reuse, recycling, and sustainability initiatives we’ve undertaken, as well as the resources Goodwill’s material management process utilizes and creates,” says Carlson. 

Every day, millions of people clean out their closets, attics and basements. Instead of throwing out the things you no longer need, give them to Goodwill, and we will sell or recycle them. It’s a cycle that extends the life of usable clothing and other goods and earns revenue for Goodwill programs that benefit thousands of people right here in West Michigan.

Goodwill Mission: Changing lives and communities through the power of work. Goodwill Vision: The leader in the nation helping people achieve self-sufficiency.

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