Rochester Are You Donating Trash to Goodwill?

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I'm not saying this is happening in Rochester, but it IS happening, so for the love of all that's holy, please stop wish-cycling your trash. For one set of Goodwill stores, it's costing so much money to get rid of that trash, it could impact services.

What Is Wish Cycling?

According to Recycle Nation, wish cycling is "the practice of recycling items that cannot be recycled." People want to recycle their stuff, which is great, but not everything can be recycled, even if it has that little recycle logo on it.

So People Are Donating Broken Things To Goodwill?

When it comes to Goodwill, the wish-cycling takes on a new component. The item is broken, filthy, or just plain gross. Will someone be able to use it and make it amazing? Probably not, which means it has to be thrown out, which made for 13 Million pounds of trash at East Coast Goodwill stores. That's costing them over a million dollars, and the money a not for profit or a non profit thrift store spends on clearing out the garbage is money that isn't going to the mission it supports.

So please, if you're clearing out stuff, look at it for a second and think, "Would I give this to my parent?" If the answer is yes, donate it. If the answer is no, and you like your parents, then please, find another way to unload it.

If you think it's dumb to make this request, this is coming from stores, not the Goodwill National bosses. I'm sharing it in case our local Goodwill stores are experiencing the same thing, but don't want to make a fuss. Please don't bother the Rochester Goodwill employees, they're working their butts off and don't need to be hassled.

As always, if you have a comment, complaint, or concern about something I wrote here, please let me know: james.rabe@townsquaremedia.com

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