What to recycle / donate where

Your local recycling centre will take a lot of items for recycling and charity shops are great for general items in good condition but for those tricky items here are a list of other places to try. Remember though, it’s always better to repair or reuse your own goods than to recycle it if possible.

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Furniture

Check out the list of stores selling second hand furniture in Ireland. Most will buy or take donations.

Mattresses

• Eco Mattress Recycling Dublin 11
• Boomerang Recycling  Ballyvolane, Cork
• Bounce Back Recycling, Galway
• Wicklow Mattress Disposal

Computers etc

• Camara, Dublin 20
• Recycle IT, Dublin 22

Electrical

• Recycle IT, Dublin 22
• WEEE Ireland, Nationwide
• Check out the list of stores selling second hand electronics & electical goods in Ireland. Most will buy or allow you to sell via their website.

Gardening Equipment / Plant Pots

• Local community gardens
• Local horticultural college

Bicycles

• Check out the list of stores selling second hand bikes in Ireland. Most will buy or take donations.
• The Freedom Machine Project in Dublin 7 takes and refurbishes bikes for kids in direct provision
• If not some councils facilitate the return of bicycles through recycling facilities
• Some shops that sell second-hand bikes might be interested in taking them

Duvets & Bedlinen & Bath Towels

• Animal Shelters such as Dogs Trust. (phone before delivering just to check they still take them)
• Some Equine Charities take towels for horses

Worn-out Clothes

• Liberties Recycling in Dublin 2 take worn out clothes and convert them into rags for use in industry.
• Worn-out swimsuits can be posted to Davy J Swimwear in the UK
• Worn out tights (pantyhose) can be sent to Swedish Stockings who will reply with a voucher off their products.
• Send your old cashmere to Chloe Haywood in London. She makes them into hot water bottle covers!
• You can also donate your cashmere to Fashion for Forests, who will plant a tree for every donation received.
• Some charity shops will accept worn out clothing to sell to ‘rag’ companies

Special Ocassion Wear

• Edenmore Communion Shop rent out clothes for communion, confirmation & christening outfits to families in need
• The Keepsake Box for communion, confirmation & christening outfits to families in need
• If you’ve a wedding or debs dress check out my article on Sustainable Ethical Weddings

Worn-out Shoes

• Liberty Recycling in Dublin 2 sends worn out leather shoes to Africa so that the leather can be used to make crafts.
• You may have heard that Schuh take pre-worn shoes including worn-out pairs. I emailed them to ask what happens with the worn-out shoes and they didn’t know!

Rucksacks / Travel Bags

• English bag maker Millican will repair any unwanted rucksacks and travel bags and rehome to charities that can use them. Email rehome@homeofmillican.com for more information

Bras

• Some charity shops sell lightly-worn bras
• The Cancer Society’s Clothes bins
• Smalls for All (By Post to UK based charity)
• Recycle for Breast Cancer (By Post to UK based charity)

Toiletries, Cosmetics & Medical

• Women’s Refuges, although phone ahead to check first.
• The Alice Leahy Trust
• The Homeless Period takes period related toiletries like tampons, pads etc.
• The Hygiene bank takes new, un-used and in-date toiletries. They’re a UK chairty but with collection points in Ireland too. Caroline Hirons is another option for those based in Wales
• Toiletry Amnesty in the UK has a useful online directory of organisations that will take old toiletries, mostly UK based for now.
• You can recycle used contact lens through Terracycle but unfortunately the only drop off points in Ireland currently are in Boots stores in Belfast.
• L’Occitane take some beauty and hair product packaging, even for other brands, in their stores for recycling.
• You can now recycle your old inhalers in some local pharmacies
• You can recycle old perfume bottles in The Perfume Shop
• Start-up Cos Watercolours in the UK take dry cosmetics to convert into watercolour paints

Books & Stationary

• Check out the list of stores selling second hand books in Ireland. Most will buy or take donations.
• Books in good condition can be sold through Amazon
• You can swap books on bookmooch.com and in the Facebook group Book Swap Ireland
• You can sell books on musicmagpie.co.uk, and webuybooks.co.uk,
• Keithscactusbooks in the UK might be interested in quality gardening books.
• Gateway to Education takes school supplies and second-hand books for families in need in Limerick
• Your local library may take them, particularly if they’re specialist in nature.
• See if a local pub or café or hostel has a book exchange shelf

Baby / Kids Stuff

• Saoirse Women’s Refuge often need items for their clients and will accept second hand if they’re in good condition
• Offer items to your local direct provision centre.
• Community Connect (Dublin & Wicklow)

 

Packaging

• If you sign up for Terracycle points you can earn cash for a charity or community organisation by collecting and dropping of used Ella Kitchen Food Pouches at the Central Remedial Clinic in Dublin, or alternatively they can be dropped into the Dublin Food Co-op in Dublin 8
• You can post used Brita Filters to Brita’s Irish distributors
• If you sign up for Terracycle points you can earn cash for a charity or community organisation by collecting and posting non-savory biscuit wrappers
• Kontanicals will take back your used essential oil bottles and give you a 12% discount on their fabulous organic essential oils.

Misc

• Old Dolls can be donated to Billy’s Dolls of Comfort for use with Alzheimer patients in care homes
• You can sell phones on
  • cash gadget exchange (Ireland)
  • envirofone
  • musicmagpie.co.uk (also takes music, books & games)
• Stamps can be donated to charities who sell them on to stamp collectors. Participating charities include Barnardos, ISPCC, NCBI, Irish Peatland Conservation Council. If you’re based in the UK there is a list of charities that take stamps on the website Used Stamps for Charities
• Old yarn can be sent to Hedgehog Fibres in Cork
• Old coins and bank notes and foreign money can be donated to the Irish Peatland Conservation Council
• Old glasses can be donated through some branches of Specsavers or local opticians but they only recycle the materials and donate the money raised to charity, they don’t reuse the glasses. A better option is your local Lions clubs who collect them and send them for reuse in disadvantaged countries through their spectacle recycling scheme.
• Vibrating Sextoys!!!!! Post to Rabbit Amnesty in Bath, UK
• Burst inflatable toys, paddling pools, armbands etc can be sent to Wyatt & Jack, upcycled bag makers in the UK.
• Send your broken umbrellas (no black), candle stubs and old crayons. leather offcuts / products, cashmere to Chloe Haywood in London for her craft projects
• If you bought your kids wetsuit at the Great Outdoors you can bring it back to them and get up to 50% off a new one. Your donated one will be sold on to someone else at a discount. You can also buy second hand ones in store too. The Upcycle Movement in Wexford also takes wetsuits through various surfing schools and if you’re in the UK you can donate them to Inland Sea.
• The Upcycle Movement in Wexford also takes kitesurfing kites, paraglides, parachutes, hot air balloon material, boat sails, tents and ringos.
• You can donate pre-loved communion outfits and accessories to the pop-up communion shop Special Occasions in Dublin 5. They give outfits to people in the community for free to help ease the financial burden of the day.
• Tools for Solidarity in Northern Ireland send refurbished sewing machines, knitting machines and leather machines for use by disadvantaged communities in Africa.
• Fingal County Council collect instruments presented for disposal to clean, mend and re-distribute them to organisations such as Centres for Autism, Addiction and Rehabilitation.

You can also try rehoming stuff on websites like

• Done Deal
• Adverts
• Add
• Gumtree
• Jumbletown (free items only)
• Freetrade (free items only)
• We Share (free items only)
• Various Facebook Groups

I also find the What to do with …. page on the Mywaste.ie page very useful

Finally, if you have a specialist item of value but you haven’t been able to rehome consider dropping it into an appropriate shop. I inherited an open-box of pen refills for a quality brand pen that I didn’t own, so I dropped them into the Pen Corner in Dublin 2, who stock that brand. They get free stock, I get empty space in my house – win win!

E