Where to donate and recycle your clutter in North Texas
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Pack up your excess and find a new home for it. Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
It's easy to chuck an unwanted item or food container into the garbage.
- Finding a way to reuse or recycle takes time and effort.
Why it matters: The average American throws away almost 1,800 pounds of trash a year — or nearly 4.9 pounds a day — most of which goes to a landfill.
Driving the news: We asked Axios Dallas readers last month what they do with their excess stuff when they start spring cleaning or get the urge to pull a Marie Kondo and get rid of everything that doesn't bring joy.
- We took that advice and did some research to figure out how to dispose of old clothes, electronics and packing materials without sending them to the dump.
Clothing: Many grocery store parking lots have a donation drop box, but here are a few options to ensure your items go to a good home.
- Genesis Benefit Thrift Store, which supports domestic violence victims, accepts clothing and furniture in good condition.
- Network of Community Ministries sells donated clothing at a low price to their clients and ensures anything not in good enough condition is recycled or repaired.
- Trusted World has donation locations throughout North Texas. They serve more than 84,000 people, almost half of whom are children. Axios reader Kaitlyn F. tells us Trusted World currently has a shortage of boys clothes.
- The intrigue: Clothing resale shops want items made from cotton and other natural fibers.
Home chemicals and cooking oils: Check for locations in your city and county through timetorecycle.com. Some cities offer home pickup.
Books and other media: Half Price Books also buys DVDs, magazines and board games.
- Lucky Dog Books offers store credit for sold books.
- Better World Books has donation boxes in Fort Worth and Lake Dallas.
Arts and crafts: Donate to Pegasus Creative Reuse in Dallas, which resells donated items, including scrapbooking supplies, bottle caps, marbles, yarn and vintage magazines.
- The Welman Project in Fort Worth gives free supplies to teachers and sells low-cost art materials to the community. The organization is moving locations and plans to reopen in April.
- Thistle Creative Reuse in Denton also resells craft supplies.
How it works: Visit Earth911.com to find recycling, donation or trash drop-off locations for a wide array of materials, including construction waste and electronics.
Pro tip: Map out your journey first. It's easier to make all the stops at once, so figure out the best route and load up your car with everything you want to donate or recycle.
💭 Tasha's experience: My organizing and downsizing journey isn't finished, but here's how I broke up the first round of my journey:
- 👗 I donated clothing at Genesis and sold a few items at Buffalo Exchange for store credit.
- 💊 I dropped unused medications at my CVS Pharmacy.
- 🍌 Food waste, including too many uneaten bananas, is accepted at Recycle Revolution for composting. I also took styrofoam and electronic cords to the community drop-off center.
- 💄 Ulta accepts empty mascara tubes and other cleaned cosmetic containers.
- 🧾 Old payment stubs and other sensitive documents landed in a locked box for shredding at Staples, which also accepts electronics to be recycled in exchange for rewards.
The bottom line: It's time consuming, but it was gratifying to take the extra step to keep waste and unwanted items out of the landfill.
- Email [email protected] if you have more suggestions or are part of a swap group.