What can you do with things you no longer need? Consider these alternatives to disposing to landfill:
| What | Where you can take these | What they do with them |
| Art / craft materials – clean items for use in school art projects | Reverse Art Truck (formerly Reverse Garbage Truck) 17 Greenwood Ave, Ringwood Phone/Fax 9879 1264 or 188T Quarry Rd, Narre Warren |
Collect rejects, seconds and factory offcuts for distribution to schools, early learning centres and the community. |
| Baby things | St Kilda Mums – 14 Winterton Rd, Clayton. See ‘Donate things‘. Opening hours generally 10am until 3pm Mon-Fri, or 10.30am-1pm Saturdays but check the website especially during school holidays.
Melbourne Gemach – contact Rochi in Ripponlea 0413 956 384 |
Receive requests from Maternal Health Nurses and local social service agencies on behalf of families in need. Then try to meet or exceed each request with quality pre-loved donations. |
| Batteries | Aldi and Officeworks have collection bins at the front of all stores for AA, AAA, C, D & 9V batteries.
Battery World collects all types of batteries. Libraries in Glen Eira & Stonnington also have collection boxes for batteries. |
Recycle |
| Bicycles | Any Bicycle Super Store (eg 1030 Dandenong Rd, Carnegie). Adult size bikes go to Bicycles for Humanity (though not bikes that are covered in rust) |
Send to Africa as sustainable transport to help break the poverty cycle. Bikes can travel twice as fast and carry 4 times the load as people on foot. Shipping containers in which they are sent become bike workshops, providing employment, skills, training and much more for communities. |
| Bras & swimwear, new or used | Uplift Project – 4 Webb St, Caulfield (or see their website for other addresses) | Send them to disadvantaged communities where a bra is unobtainable or unaffordable. Sends them wherever they have requests. |
| Bread tags | Bread Tags for Wheelchairs Follow this link to find your nearest collection point. |
Made of high impact polystyrene the tags have a good recycling value. 200kg of the tags bring in enough money to buy a wheelchair for a needy person in South Africa. |
| Cars & other vehicles | Kids Under Cover https://www.kuc.org.au/get-involved/donate-your-car/ | They collect your car (minus the number plates as you need to cancel your registration first), pass it on to auctioneers who sell it. The proceeds go to Kids Under Cover who use it in their work to combat youth homelessness. Your donation is even tax deductible! |
| Books | Children’s books: Australian Books for Children of Africa – see www.abca.org.au 15 Seaview St, Caulfield South OR Schools without Books Other books: I Love Books The Footpath Library |
ABCA provides second-hand books and writing materials for underprivileged schools in rural Africa. Note: Books must be in good condition and suit children aged 12 years and under.
Schools without Books sends books to schools in third world countries – board books, picture books, fiction & general non-fiction (up to ~ age 16). All atlases (that don’t have USSR) & dictionaries are treasured, & any encyclopedia from 2005 onward. No text books. |
| Clean clothing in good condition | Avalon Centre 1936 Malvern Rd, Malvern East – see their website for current needs (alternatively most op shops) |
Avalon goes out on a regular basis distributing clothes, bedding and warmth through work and interaction with the homeless. |
| Clothing not in good condition | Brotherhood of St Laurence stores
Make a Wish Foundation has bins in many Westfield malls SCR Group Clothing dropoff – has bins next to several railway stations. H& M clothing stores accept clothing in any condition |
Brotherhood passes them on to Melbourne Cleaning Cloths
Make A Wish Foundation passes them on to King Cotton Australia H&M passes them on to their business partner I:CO who use them for rewear (as second-hand clothes), reuse (for other products such as cleaning cloths) or recycling (as textile fibres for things like insulation |
| Computers & IT equipment |
B2C Community IT Recyclers – A social enterprise of The Werx Foundation, offering work experience and training to people with disabilities. 3/3 Elma Rd, Cheltenham. Open for drop offs: Tues,Wed & Thu 9:30am – 3.30pm or phone 9005-0101 for appointment.
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B2C accepts all forms of IT equipment and peripherals except printers, regardless of age, specs or working condition and work to prevent these from entering landfill. Re-use as much as possible, integrating PC components into refurbished computers. What can’t be re-used is dismantled into its constituent parts & sent for processing to responsible waste partners. |
| DVDs, CDs, VHS, cassette tapes & cases, floppy disks | Stonnington Council – drop off at:
Prahran Town Hall Service Centre |
Recycle |
| Electrical items | Brotherhood of St Laurence Tel. 1300 366 283 Second-hand working electrical items are accepted at Brotherhood stores. See also Whitegoods listing below for Fridges. |
Electrical items are safety-tested before resale. |
| Furniture (in good condition) & whitegoods (in good working order) + lots more | Eastern Emergency Relief Network Donations can be delivered to their warehouse 9am to 1pm Monday to Friday or volunteers can collect from Cities of Whitehorse, Manningham, Maroonday, Knox, Monash & Boroondara. |
Provide emergency aid to those in need. See their ‘About us‘ page |
| Glasses (sight & reading) | Lions Recycle 4 Sight – mail to: Lions Recycle For Sight, PO Box 3021 Clontarf MDC 4019 (or approach your local Lions Club) OR Temple Beth Israel – 76-82 Alma Rd, St Kilda or Care With Quality – 62 Rosstown Rd, Carnegie |
Cleans, grades and labels used spectacles for distribution in third world countries.
Remove the lenses and send frames to Israel to provide glasses for those in need. |
| Hearing aids |
SoundFair
Suite 1, Level 2, 517 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne |
Provide recycled hearing aids to disadvantaged people – single income families, working poor, unemployed, refugees and asylum seekers. |
| Household goods in working order | Donate Direct
See also ‘Something else to give away‘ below. |
Matches items being given away – televisions, computers, bedding, mobile phones, kitchen appliances and white goods – with charities and Community Service Providers who pass them on at no charge to disadvantaged people who need them. |
| Light globes- incandescent, compact fluorescent, downlight & fluorescent tubes | Libraries in Glen Eira have collection boxes for fluorescent light globes and tubes.
Stonnington Waste Transfer Station |
Recycled through CMA Ecocycle – see how in this brochure or similar organisations.
Note: Handle fluorescent globes with great care – they contain mercury which can be very harmful to health. |
| Makeup, toiletries, dinner sets, cutlery, pots & pans, toasters, kettles – all new and unused |
Impact for Women impactforwomen@gmail.com PO Box 277, Glen Huntly 3163 See http://www.impactforwomen.org.au/bags-of-love-ideas.html for more ideas |
Make ‘bags of love’ to give to women escaping violent family situations. |
| Material/fabric (including sheets, doona covers, pillowslips, etc) | Boomerang Bags
(See their website boomerangbags.org for your nearest dropoff point) |
Upcycle the material buy sewing it to make reusable shopping bags |
| Mattresses | Drop off at the Resource Recovery Centre, corner White & Boundary Streets, South Melbourne (Melway 2E F11), or Port Phillip Council residents can book a hard rubbish collection
or Fee-for-service collection for https://www.softlanding.com.au/ (a social enterprise) or www.bedcollect.com.au |
Break them down & use fabric to make carpet underlay & weed mats, timber frames for kindling and send springs to metal recyclers |
| Mobile phones | Aussie Recycling Program (ARP) Factory 29, 260 Wickham Rd, Highett Tel. 9532 1237 – JECO is happy to collect these and take them in to ARP. OR MobileMuster OR mobile phone retailers OR Officeworks |
ARP recycles useable phones and on-sells them cheaply to third world countries, thus enabling people to afford a phone. Those that can’t be reused are dismantled and disposed of responsibly. |
| Paint | Paintback – see paintback.com.au for closest location | Separate packaging and waste liquid, then recycle containers and treat waste paint for energy recovery for solvent and liquid/solid separation for water-based paint. |
| Pens and markers | Officeworks – selected stores collect these for recycling. Looking to roll out the program nationally over the next year. | Recycling |
| Plastic wrap | Coles and Woolworths have collection bins for these at the front of their stores. This is passed on to RedCycle. NB NOT cling wrap. | Use to make recycled plastic items such as park benches and furniture for schools and kindergartens. |
| Polystyrene | Monash Waste Transfer – amounts up to ½ cubic metre 380 Ferntree Gully Rd, Notting Hill Tel. 9518 3767 |
Recycle it |
| Printer cartridges & toner bottles | Recycling boxes at participating Officeworks, Australia Post, Harvey Norman, JB HiFi and Good Guys stores. Or phone the Cartridges Hotline (1800 24 24 73). Businesses or departments using more than 3 cartridges per month can register online for their FREE collection service. | Recycle them through Close the Loop, who have invented several technologies to safely shred & recycle ink & toner cartridges, toner bottles & other print consumables. |
| Sports equipment in reusable condition | VAFA Umpires Association rooms 170 Glenhuntly Rd, Elsternwick (Elsternwick Park), Mondays & Wednesdays 6pm-7.30pm, or see www.bootsforall.org.au |
Distribute quality, new and near-new sporting equipment to vulnerable Australians to enable sport participation. |
| Towels, blankets, flat sheets, pillowcases, face washers |
RSPCA Adoption Centres http://www.rspcavic.org/giving/other-ways-to-give/donations-for-animals 3 Burwood Hwy, Burwood East |
Use for bedding and other requirements for animals in their care. |
| Used stamps (from envelopes) |
Women of the University Fund (supports various charities including children & youth ages 6-under 25, and financially disadvantaged people ) The Mews, Government House Grounds 1 Government House Drive Melbourne 3004 OR Used Stamps, Kidney Health Australia |
Trim and sort stamps, then sell to local stamp dealers and stamp collectors. |
| Whitegoods – especially fridges, freezers, washing machines & dryers | Whitegoods Refurbishment & Recycling Program (Kids off the Kerb) Currently collects from the following councils: Whittlesea, Moonee Valley, Melbourne, Maribyrnong, Hume, Darebin, Monash, Yarra & Melton – call 9982 5600 to arrange a collection time or visit their factory store in Thomastown. |
Train young people to test, repair and clean the used whitegoods & electronics. Refurbished goods are sold with proceeds going back into the program. Otherwise they are used for spare parts or scrap metal recycling. |
| Xrays | Stonnington Council collects these at libraries, pools and its service centre. eg Malvern Library, Harold Holt Swim Centre.
Glen Eira Council libraries also have collection boxes for these. |
X-ray recycling mainly aims to recovery silver from both films and chemicals. The silver is then sold into the precious metals market.
Residual chemicals are handled according to EPA requirements. Where possible they are recycled, or neutralised and disposed of as trade waste. |
| Something else to give away? Advertise your second-hand freebies on one of the following websites with a photo. Could be just what someone wants: au.ziilch.com (note ii) |
If you find any issues with any of these, or have any more to add, please email your suggestions using our Contact form.
See also Sustainability Victoria’s website http://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/services-and-advice/households/waste-and-recycling for tips for recycling and/or safe disposal of televisions, whitegoods, paint and toxic household chemicals, and TerraCycle for recycling of various other products.
| The amount of electricity saved by recycling a single aluminium can is enough to run the average television set for three hours.
– Clean Up Australia |