Proper purging: ways to avoid the landfill

April 23, 2008

If spring cleaning at your house involves a lot of purging of old and unused items there are several options available to get rid of the items without sending them to landfill.

Donate: Organizations such as Goodwill, the Canadian Diabetes Association, Salvation Army and a slew of others will accept previously used items such as clothing, housewares or sporting goods. For a list of local shelters and organizations that accept donations, visit www.charityvillage.com/cv/charityvillage/donate.asp.

If renovations are in your future, Habitat for Humanity Restores accept items from renovations such as windows, doors, paint, hardware, lumber, tools, lighting fixtures and even the kitchen sink. There are three locations in Toronto: 29 Bermondsey Rd. (East York), 1120 Caledonia Rd. (North York) and 7 Queen Elizabeth Blvd. (Etobicoke).

Garage/yard sales: One person's junk is another person's treasure so don't write off items as garbage so quickly. Someone might be able to make use of them and give them a second life. This can be a solo event or organized with the whole street or neighbourhood.

For those who don't have a garage or yard, there's always online sites such as freecycle (www.freecycle.org/group/Canada/Ontario/Toronto) or Craigslist (http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/).

The City of Toronto Community Environment Days have also begun. They give residents the opportunity to drop off an array of items for reuse or proper disposal.

Small household items like dishes and ornaments will go to Goodwill, along with books, linens and clothing. They'll even take your broken VCRs, cellphones, computers and other electronics and make sure they are properly recycled and/or disposed of, as well as polystyrene (meat trays, takeout food containers, moulded bakery item trays, foam dishes, egg cartons, shipping foam) will be collected. They'll also take art supplies such as pencils, markers, crayons, yarn and fabric, as well as used buttons, costume jewelry and dress-up clothing. These items will be donated to ArtsJunktion, a Toronto District School Board warehouse for teachers, and reused by creative young minds.

And don't forget to bring in leftover cleaning supplies and solvents, motor oil, paint, old and unused medication, mercury thermometers/thermostats and pesticides. These items are household hazardous wastes and need to be disposed of safely.