By now you’ve probably noticed the circular arrows logo on certain products, encouraging you to recycle them. Tom Flanigan reports some products will soon have a new logo, suggesting those things be donated to Goodwill when you’re finished with them.
Goodwill of the Big Bend Vice President of P-R Brooke Lochore says it was actually her organization that came up with the idea.
“Goodwill has created a new icon that we hope everybody will recognize in the future that reminds them to donate. Donations have a huge impact on our community and the planet – our environment – because when you decide to donate instead of throwing it away, you’re re-purposing it .”
That new logo has two arrows forming a stylized letter “D” encircling the earth.
“The recycling symbol took about thirty years to get internationally recognized. We’re hoping for a lot less than thirty years. And I think it’s who our partners are. Levi Strauss was our first partner and in the care tag of their blue jeans when you look at how to care for it, it says: ‘Wash on cold, line dry, donate.”
Lochore says other companies are coming on board with their products as well. The whole idea, she says is to remind people there are alternatives to just throwing old consumer goods away.
“Donations are our bread and butter; that’s how we’re funded. So when we can get the public to realize the impact that their donations have, that it’s employing people through that donation to our Goodwill retail stores, but also the revenue from the sale of their donated good is going to put more people to work.”
Lochore says Goodwill makes every effort to sell donated clothing intact.
“All the clothing donations, they’ll get moved around to another store at Goodwill so it has multiple chances because it’s always the best thing to reuse first. Then we have a ‘Good Cents’ store where we sell donations by the pound so the clothing is sold for $1.79 per pound. If it’s still not sold there, it gets baled in 1000-pound bales that we sell on the salvage market.”
Lochore says the regional Goodwill’s contribution to that market is beyond huge.
“And last year, 10-million pounds of unsold donations was sold on the international rag market, was diverted from our landfill, and the money was kept here in Leon County/Tallahassee and the surrounding area to put people to work for job training.”
And finally, Lochore says Goodwill’s employment and job training capacity will soon be greatly expanded with the opening of the new retail store at the corner of Pensacola and Mabry streets in Tallahassee.
“We’re on track. We’re hoping in the next couple of months it’s going to be finished. Then we will move the retail store on Mabry to the corner of Pensacola and the processing area’s going to free up. May is when we expect to open our new Prosperity Center, a new music center and a new wellness center.”
Something we might recall when we start seeing all those “D-For Donate” logos on the new clothing we buy.