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
- Christy Bird (Wide range of antique furniture located in Portobello, Dublin 2)
- Mosa Studios – (Eclectic range of antique furniture located in Merchants Quay, Dublin 8)
- Table Lighting Chair – (Midcentury antiques located in Rialto, Dublin 8)
- Kirkmodern – (Midcentury antiques located in Blackrock, Co Dublin)
- Retrorumage – (Midcentury antiques located in Dundrum, Dublin 14)
- Seven Wood – (Midcentury antiques located in Portobello, Dublin 8)
- Vintage Limelight – (Midcentury antiques located in Rathfarnham, Dublin 16)
- Beyond Retro (Midcentury antiques located in Templeogue, Dublin 6W)
- Original Compulsive Design (Midcentury antiques located in Kilkenny)
- Vintage Hub (Midcentury antiques located in Lusk, Co Dublin)
- Rummage (Second-hand furniture and homeware in Roscommon)
- Herman & Wilkinson (Auction house located in Rathmines, Dublin 6)
- RJ Keighery (Auction house located in Waterford city, Waterford)
- Auction Warehouse (Runs online auctions weekly, based in Sandyford in Dublin 18)
- Macs Warehouse, (Salvage yard in Islandbridge, Dublin 8)
- Architectural Salvage (Salvage yard located in Naas Road, Dublin 22)
- Rugs to Rhinos / Irish Liquidators (Harold’s Cross, Dublin 6)
- Rediscovery Centre (Social enterprise in Ballymun, Dublin 9)
- Oxfam Home (Charity located on Francis St, Dublin 8)
- NCBI Home (Charity located in Harold’s Cross, Dublin 6)
- NCBI Home (Charity located on Francis St, Dublin 8)
- St Vincent de Paul (Charity located in Navan, Co Meath)
- Age Action (Charity Shop on Camden St, Dublin 2)
- Age Action (Charity Shop in Cherry Orchard / Ballyfermot Dublin 22)
- BusyBees Furniture (community scheme located in North Strand, Dublin 1)
- Rediscovery Centre Furniture (community scheme located in Ballymun, Dublin 11)
- Revamp 3R (community scheme located in Longford)
- Back 2 New (community scheme located in Limerick)
- Dunhallow Revamping (community scheme in Newmarket, Co Cork)
- Revamped (located in Drogheda, Co Louth)
- Revived and Retro (located in Terryglass, Co Tipperary)
- The Big Up (located in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin)
- Altered and Eclectic in Scarrif, Munster
- Galway Artisan Workshop in Galway city
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
- You can sell mobile phones and tech on musicmagpie.co.uk
- Amazon now has a refurbished electronics section
Gardening Equipment / Plant Pots
- Local community gardens
- Local horticultural college
Bicycles
- If workable put it on adverts.ie or freetradeireland.com
- ReCycle in Dublin 18 sells second hand bikes.
- Frontline Bikes, Dublin 8
- Bicycle Recycle, Balbriggan, Co Dublin
- Rebike in Dungarvan, Co Waterford renovate unwanted bikes and donate them to those who may not have access to one.
- The Freedom Project in Dublin 7 collect, fix and donate bikes to kids in direct provision in Ireland
- 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!
- Some charity shops will accept worn out clothing to sell to ‘rag’ companies
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.
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 & 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
Books & Stationary
- Opening Minds book stores and Book Haven take second-hand school books in good condition
- Charlie Byrne book shop in Galway will give store credit in return for pre-loved books in good condition.
- Readers Paradise Bookshop in Wexford takes second hand books, including school and college books, too.
- Marrowbone Bookshop in Dublin 8 will take second hand books in good nick.
- The Bookshop in Thurles takes second hand books in good condition to resell.
- 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, webuybooks.co.uk, Ziffit.com
- Keithscactusbooks in the UK might be interested in quality gardening books.
- 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
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 music, games, mobile phones and tech on musicmagpie.co.uk or Ziffit.com
- 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 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.
- 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.
- 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
I didn’t know the cancer society took bras, I’ve never seen any bins. I want to get rid of some bras, and was planning on posting them to Smalls For All but I will have another look in the cancer soc shop 🙂
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Any ideas on what to do with sets of encylopedia britannicas please?
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Schools, Members of Home Education network, pre-schools? Or a interior designer might use it for cool residential wallcovering.
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Love this! One you might add for Galway under books: Charlie Byrne’s gives store credit for good condition, resaleable books.
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Great. Thanks for that tip. Will definitely add in.
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I LOVE your blog, congrats on it, it’s my go to before buying anything these days. Any idea where to recycle old cd’s, cd cases and hard disks (the ones that came after floppy). I have loads, mostly blank. Thank you.
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That’s so nice of you to say. Thanks Grainne. Are the CD’s computer CD or music CD’s? If it’s the former then maybe your local community garden would use them as bird scarers. If it’s the latter then your charity shop might take them. I also believe there is a way to remove the coating on them so that you end up with clear plastic discs which might be useful in art projects. I met a lady at the MADE festival in Dublin over the summer who does this.
The charity shop might also take the CD cases because these frequently get damaged and they might want to replacements for good CD’s that they want to sell in the shop. Otherwise i believe teachers use them in schools for some type of project work.
Hard disks are a tricky. I really don’t think they’re of any real use anymore. Why not contact one of the companies that recycles IT and ask them for their advice? Or in your local Laptop repair centre. They might know the best way to dispose of them.
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That’s a great list Elaine, and thanks for the mention. 🙂
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My absolute pleasure. It’s one of my most popular blog posts.
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Hi. A great recycling resource for bikes to add to your list. Rebike based in Dungarvan, Waterford take donations of old bikes and refurbish them to donate to families who may not be able to afford bikes.
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Oh, great. Thanks for letting me now. Will update the list now. If you have any sort of mailing list please add me on. I’ve a Facebook Page where I post ‘eco-news’ so am always happy to hear about eco-events / developments around the country. You’ll find my email on the About Me page. Elaine
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I found your blog today. I’m so delighted. So much useful information!!! Thank you for all your work and keep it Going please!!!
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Thank you so much Tanya for such a lovely comment. I’m actually in the process of writing this weeks blog post. E
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Your shoes link for Liberty recycling is broken, but they confirmed to me that they send all shoes to Benin. An issue though is getting the shoes to Liberty Recycling in the Bluebell Industrial Estate in Dublin 12. Good news is that they opened a new store on William street Limerick City on 14th June 2019.
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This is a great list. Thank you so much for the useful info.
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Delighted you find it good.
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