12 Days of Sustainability: Donate What You Don't Need

12 Days of Sustainability is a series of tips to make your holidays more sustainable. If you follow our strategy, you can celebrate the holidays while keeping our future bright. You can find the rest on our sustainable marketing blog, Environicle .

It is the last day of our 12 Days of Sustainability, and we have one more tip left for you! Do you ever get gifts around the holidays that you just don’t need? Even if you return them to the retailer, they still might end up in a landfill. Annually, over 5 billion pounds of merchandise are returned after the holidays that get thrown away by the retailer. That’s a lot of waste!

If you get gifts this year that you can’t use, donate them instead! It’s not only environmentally responsible but socially as well. There are many shelters, charities, and people who would love those items you don’t planning on using. Shelters like Sistering and Na-Me-Res offer programs and supports to marginalized people living in poverty.

Those items that might just sit around and collect dust for you, might be life-changing for somebody else. These shelters often need things like new clothing, toiletries, art supplies, and sometimes toys. So that pyjama set or those body wash gift baskets would be perfect for donating. Anything helps!

This is our last holiday tip, but we’ll always be here for green marketing tips! If you’re a business or organization offering sustainable products and solutions, sign up for our mailing list to improve your digital strategy.