When cleaning out your closet or getting rid of old unwanted items many simply think of throwing them away.
Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona, however, encourages everyone to donate and help the environment in the process.
Part of their campaign to promote recycling and sustainability which coincides with America Recycles Day, which is November 15th.
Goodwill's 300,000-square-foot Retail Operations Center in west Phoenix, known as the ROC, is a round-the-clock operation where forklift operators and sifters sort through items ranging from shoes, clothes, and old toys to bookshelves and dryers.
At one point, each item was in a central or northern Arizona Goodwill store but was never sold.
All of those items end up at the ROC where different vendors buy the items, turning them into other things like plastics, metals, and textiles.
Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona diverts more than 100 million pounds of items each year from going into landfills.
The ROC plays a big part in that.
Lea Soto-Graham, a spokesperson for Goodwill, says people can have peace of mind knowing that their donated goods will not be put to waste.
“At Goodwill we can make sure that things either get that second chance, sold in our stores, or if not sold in stores, then we can make sure that it’s recycled," she says.
