The very essence of the Goodwill model — collecting and reselling used goods — is inherently sustainable. We extend the life of usable items, and optimize their utility by using sales revenue to address critical needs in the community we serve. When items cannot be sold in the stores, we recycle and resell fabric, metal, electronics, books and more through our salvage operation.

Life Cycle of Donated Goods

• Goodwill® is committed to the power of the circular economy. We are one of the biggest promoters of reuse. Our entire model is based on trying to prevent products from going to waste, and we’ve been doing this for more than 120 years.
• We make every effort to sell, repurpose or recycle donations locally with our multiple retail channels that include retail stores, outlet store and ecommerce so that we keep donated goods in circulation.
• Donations that don’t sell or don’t meet the quality standards are sold in Goodwill outlet store, selling items at significantly lower prices.
• After exhausting all of our retail channels, leftover product is sold in bulk to salvage buyers and brokers who then grade materials into different categories for resale, recycling, downcycling or export — depending on the needs of their network of buyers.