The first day of Spring is right around the corner!
It's the perfect time to tidy up, declutter, and make room for new possibilities! Let’s make sure everything you’re parting with gets a second life or is properly disposed of.
Let's keep it green, team!
DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that approximately 25% of the waste generated during spring cleaning is made up of items that could have been reused, recycled, or donated, rather than thrown away? By making eco-friendly choices, you can reduce waste and give new life to items that might otherwise end up in landfills.
Donate! Donate! Donate!
Let’s keep things local!
With unique treasures ranging from vintage gems or modern finds. Chattel is a consignment experience!
At Sweet Repeats Children’s Consignment, they take clothing, toys, books, shoes and gear for children.
Embrace clothing sustainability, make a consignment appointment at Restyle.
Cleaning out the pantry or bathroom? Yarmouth Community Food Pantry will take nonperishable foods, paper products, and personal care items. (Please do not donate anything past Best Use/Buy Date, opened products, see the acceptable items list above).
Something of meaning to the Town? Acquire about the object with Yarmouth Historical Society!
Going into Portland? Drop off items along your way!
Goodwill Northern New England accepts these donations 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. everyday! With the DellReconnect program, old electronics can be donated.
Habitat for Humanity and Salvation Army are great places to bring furniture, household items, gently or unused building materials and appliances.
Leftover school supplies that might go unused, help out Teachers and Students by donating those goods to Ruth’s Reusable Resources.
Help out this non-profit with donating clothing, items, and cleaning products. You can also have fun assembling kits at Maine Need’s!
Preble Street takes a wide variety of donations, check out this list!
Lots for Tots! This cool consignment store accepts gently used children’s clothing, shoes, toys, and furniture.
Happy Home Computers, helps connect the community to electronics and reuse computers. Donate your computers here!
You may have seen Apparel Impact around! This company has clothing recovery bins, making it easy to donate and on your schedule! If items can’t be donated at other locations due to ware and tear, Apparel Impact will take them.
Let's Get Creative!
Give household items a longer life by reusing or repurposing them. When we decide to toss things in the trash and replace with new, we start another long (often hidden) path of carbon emissions, resource use, and energy consumption attached to each item. Have some fun finding ways to keep items alive - and save energy, pollution, and money along the way!
Need a to-go container? Glass jars from store bought foods are a great option!
Has a shirt gotten too much love over the years and can’t be donated? It can be used as a cleaning cloth!
Does a cabinet door close too loudly? Try glueing wine corks to the inside corners to prevent that!
Don’t know what to do with that old stack of magazines? Use them as wrapping paper! A sustainable twist for your thoughtful gifts.
Made a recent trip to Trader Joe’s? Their bags are perfect for collecting recyclables.
Egg cartons can be used as seed starters!
Old shower rings can be used to organize scarves, belts, or hats!
Metal cans can be used as plant pots!
Ahh! What do I do with this? Here are some resources.
Can’t forgot about our great local transfer station!
Mark your calendars! Hazardous waste day collection at the Transfer station is in September.
Riverside Recycling Facility accepted hazardous waste the 1st Saturday of every month, April through September. This is the list of acceptable items.
Do you have paint in the basement from when you first painted your house? The PaintCare Program can be the solution!
Medical waste to discard? Take unwanted medical waste to Walgreens or the police station.
Personal information that you want to get taken care of? RMC Maine, shreds and recycles important documents on-site.
Can someone do this for me…?
Here are some companies that will pick up items and recycle or donate them for you!
At Furniture Friends, they will pick up donations for you! All you have to do is submit a Furniture Donation form.
Pine State Hauling and Junk Removal will remove any and all waste for you! If you have a usable item, they will also pick up donations as well.
This women owned company, Southern Maine Roll Off, does donation pick-ups. They also offer roll off dumpsters which are then sustainability sorted through at EcoMaine.
Big projects this spring? The Dump Guy Junk Removal Service, can help with removing anything from appliances to construction debris.
More Resources
The High School Environmental Action Club Zero Waste Guide
Many products we use in our everyday lives are wasteful, harmful to the planet, and contain toxic chemicals that we don't want to be using. Giving the gift of a non-toxic zero-waste product to a friend, family member, or yourself, is now easy with our list of zero-waste, plastic-free products!
MaineGear Share
This non-profit is an outdoor gear lending library and repair shop!
GoGoRefill
Your one stop sustainable shop. Zero-waste and plastic-free refills.
iFixit
Broke something? Check out this website for how-to-guides on repairing the item before discarding it.
Recyclopedia
Still have questions about how to dispose of an item? Head to Ecomaine’s Recyclopedia tool to search the database and get answers.