If you’ve recently decluttered your home or are packing to move house, you’ll likely be left with piles of unwanted things to discard. If these unwanted items are still in good condition, it’s always better to donate them for reuse instead of sending them to landfill. Here’s our list of places in Perth to donate your preloved items to.
Clothing and Textiles
Clothing and fabric are easily recycled yet so much ends up in landfill. Upparel is a textile recovery and recycling company based in Australia. They sort unwanted textiles to be either repurposed or recycled. Check the Upparel website for a full list of stores that accept clothing donations.
Clothing retailers such as Zara and H&M also have garment collection programs. You can drop off unwanted clothes or textiles in store to be recycled into new products. Some stores also accept preloved footwear, linen and jewellery.
Towels and Bedding
The Sheridan Recycling Program allows you to drop your linen off at their boutique, studio or outlet stores. The donated sheets and towels are repurposed into new products. However, if they are past the point of donation for humans – check if your local animal shelter requires any towels or bedding.
Shoes
Tread Lightly is a national recycling program created by the Australian Sporting Goods Association in partnership with Save Our Soles. This program takes unwanted sports shoes and recycles their reusable components. Various stores accept shoe donations on Tread Lightly’s behalf including Nike, Asics & Rebel Sports. Check the Tread Lightly website to find out where to donate particular shoe brands.
Pet Items
There are several household pet items you can donate to the RSPCA. These donations help the RSPCA care for animals recovering from cruelty and neglect. Here are some of the useful items they accept:
- Pet Food
- Newspaper & Shredded Paper (long strips only)
- Clean Towels & Blankets
- Plastic Containers & Crates for storage
- Pet Bowls
- Pet Beds
- Dog Coats in cooler months
- Cat & Dog Carriers
- Dog Crates
- Baby Gates (for puppies)
- Worm Treatments for Dogs
Reading Glasses, Contact Lenses & Hearing Aids
Old spectacles, hearing aids and unused contact lenses can be donated to Lions Recycle for Sight. This is part of the Lions Club Eyeglass Recycling Program which refurbishes spectacles for those in need in Africa, India and more. They accept prescription glasses that are still in good condition.
To donate, remove the glasses from the case and send them to the address listed on the Lions Australia website. Lions Australia has also partnered with Specsavers to allow you to donate your pre-loved glasses at Specsavers stores.
Bikes
Bicycles are bulky items that take up a lot of space. If you have an old bike you or your children no longer use, you can donate it to the Ride Nation Bikes for Schools Program. Ride Nation works with schools and communities to create libraries of donated bikes for students. They have facilitated bike libraries and instructor education for 30 schools across Australia.
Books
Donate your unwanted books to Save the Children for them to sell at their fundraiser book sales. These book sales raise funds to support vulnerable children from the Pilbara to Perth. Make sure to check out their website to see what condition the books must be in to be donated and the location of their book depots.
Stationery
Many stationery products are not easily recycled. Officeworks provides a recycling facility for home and office stationery products. The Officeworks Bring it Back program recycles a range of products including pens, markers, ink & toner cartridges and more. Visit their website for the full list of materials.
Mobile Phones & E-Waste
Officeworks also offers recycling for electronic devices such as computers, laptops, mobile phones and other technology accessories. Their Device Trade-in program even offers you a gift voucher once you submit your device trade-in.
Drop off your batteries and mobile phones at the in-store Recycling Unit at Woolworths. This program helps reduce the amount of hazardous e-waste in landfills. You can deposit various batteries, mobile phones, chargers & accessories for recycling.
Broken Toys
Big W has a Toys for Joy program for recycling preloved toys. You can drop your preloved toys into the collection bins in every Big W store. Suitable toys are given to the Salvation Army while broken toys are recycled into raw materials.
Balloons
You can recycle unwanted balloons at a participating Red Dot store. Amscan has partnered with Red Dot to provide an easy drop-off location for foil and latex balloons. Visit the TerraCycle website to find out which Red Dot stores offer balloon recycling.
Other Donation Resources
- Recycling Near You - Planet Ark: Finds charities and recycling locations for specific items
- Recycle Right: Find the nearest recycling centre in the Perth metro area.