Collections: donate clothes, appliances and furniture!

Are you emptying your cupboards, your cellar, your attic? Don't throw away! By giving to those in need, you will avoid producing additional waste.

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We are still producing more waste: 590 kg per year and per person, twice as much as forty years ago. But the day when we do a lot of sorting in the house, we don't always have the desire or the energy to embark on a round of garage sales or to create a shop on eBay to get rid of objects. unnecessary.

The solution: donate! Furniture, clothes, household appliances, computers, mobile phones… can live a second life.

This activity represents approximately 16,000 full-time jobs, often occupied by people with little or no qualifications or in the process of professional integration.

Give objects in good condition

You can give away almost anything... but not just anyhow. All the associations insist on the cleanliness and quality of the objects offered. At Emmaüs, the weight of donations that end up in the dumpster went from 23 tonnes in 2008 to 26 tonnes in 2009 (out of an average of 225,000 tonnes of objects collected).

For associations, receiving irreparable or unsaleable items represents a waste of time and energy.

Not all associations have the same policy. The Red Cross, for example, only takes clothes.

Secours Catholique recommends that donors contact the local delegation to see if what they have to offer can be taken up.

The Secours populaire accepts clothes in all its branches and furniture only in some.

Finally, the Emmaus companions take all donations in good condition. At the top of the charts, textiles, clothing and household linen.

Some organizations distribute the collection to those who need it, others organize sales that allow them to raise money, and still others have set up a specific channel. This is the case with the Compagnons d’Emmaus, with Le Relais, which provides collection door-to-door or in containers.

The textiles are then sorted: 5% will go to Ding Fring stores to be resold, 35% are exported, mainly to Africa, 45% are recycled into industrial rags or transformed into thermal insulation. The remaining 15%, considered as waste, is destroyed.

Significant but insufficient textile donations

The containers of the Relais also receive donations intended for the Tissons la solidarité network, founded by Secours Catholique, which brings together 70 companies dedicated to the fight against exclusion of women. There too, the clothes are collected, sorted and resold. The network even has its own label and parades its collection twice a year.

Furniture, crockery and decorative objects are not forgotten, however, as shown by the success of the Emmaüs fair, held every June in Paris. The association collects more than 65,000 tonnes of furniture per year, 70% of which is resold or donated. And when the collection is carried out directly from the private individual, the furniture arrives in better condition.

So don't hesitate to ask the nearest Emmaus branch to come to your house to pick up your old sofa! Finally, book donations are a delight for the Secours populaire because they enable the organization of popular street sales.

“ Resource ” your objects

Just like associations, recycling centers (or recycling centers) recover furniture, crockery and household appliances to restore them, even customize them and resell them. Attention ! They do not collect, it is up to you to bring your items. Consult the network of resources.

Donations between individuals

There are also websites specializing in donations of objects between individuals. The principle is always the same: registration on the site is free, whether to donate or to search for an object. On some sites, such as donnons.org or co-recyclage.com, each ad is validated before publication by a moderator.

Donations of dangerous or illegal objects are prohibited, but donnons.org also refuses donations of live animals, food products, cosmetics, as well as foam puzzle mats recently banned for sale because they are likely to contain toxic substances.

Donnons.org encourages local donations to avoid shipping costs, lost parcels and car trips.

All donation sites between individuals allow you to search by region, department and sometimes by city. All also protect the anonymity of their members: electronic messages pass through the site and the addresses of donors are never transmitted to recipients and vice versa.

Then you have to choose from the existing sites, more or less militant, moderate, navigable and pleasing to the eye: in addition to co-recyclage.com and donnons.org, you can also donate on recupe.net, consoglobe .com, bondebarras.org, recupere.fr or even freecycle.org.

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