Want A Greener Planet? Consider Donating To Goodwill

Dr. Bahiyyah Maroon at the Lake Nona Goodwill store. Photo by Roberto Gonzalez

Dr. Bahiyyah Maroon recalls with perfect clarity her first major thrifting treasure. “I found an Ungaro blazer that came off the shelf for $2,400,” she says, “and I bought it at a Goodwill in San Francisco for $14.”

Maroon, who is now the vice president of mission impact at Goodwill Industries of Central Florida (GICF), has been thrifting since the movie “Pretty in Pink” came out. “I must have worn that blazer for 15 years,” Maroon adds. “When it was time to retire it, I gifted it back to Goodwill.”

According to GICF, 17 million tons of textile waste ends up in landfills every year and can take up to 200 years to decompose. In 2024, it diverted nearly 24 million pounds of donated goods from Central Florida landfills.

An employee sorts donated goods at the Taft Hub, an operations hub. Photo by Roberto Gonzalez

“When you donate your gently used goods and shop at a Goodwill store, you’re participating in recycling that makes our world more sustainable and our environment healthier,” says Maroon. “Every dollar that your donation produces and every dollar that you spend in a store goes directly to helping people in vulnerable communities thrive.”

Among the many ways GICF achieves this mission is through asset-based community development, one of its key philosophies. Simply put, says Maroon, before we assume that people are incapable of helping themselves, we should identify all the resources they’re currently utilizing to survive and figure out how to amplify what they’re already doing, augmenting that with different tools people may not already have.

“Here at GICF, we have a groundbreaking program called the Prosperity Planning Platform. It is a unique approach to solving issues of poverty and low-income vulnerability. We provide low-income and working-class people with access to a prosperity planner,” says Maroon.

Just as a financial planner would sit down with its clients, prosperity planners sit down   one-on-one with individuals and help them identify their life dreams, and the steps it will take to achieve those dreams. 

“What’s unique about this program is that people’s trajectory is based on their goals and their dreams. It’s not based on a set of arbitrary outcomes that we’ve developed on their behalf. We’re providing them with expert support and qualified guidance to identify what it is they want for a better life and the steps it will take to get there, and then walking alongside them over the multi-year process of helping them to fulfill their dreams,” she adds. 

More than 72% of people who’ve participated in the prosperity platform since its inception in 2021 have seen an increase in their economic mobility.

Crucial to keeping goods out of the landfills, says Maroon, is operational efficiency.

There is also an outlet store at the Taft location. Photo by Roberto Gonzalez

“We draw on what is called the ‘Good Job Strategy.’ GICF deeply believes that operational efficiency comes from ensuring that the people who work at Goodwill are able to love what they do, are working in safe environments and can have a fair wage. Over the last 5 years, our wage at Goodwill has gone from $9 an hour to $16 an hour. People in the Central Florida region and every person who comes to work for Goodwill receives intensive training on safety and on operational efficiency.” 

By investing in the people who work for them, it makes it possible for GICF to maximize every donation that comes through its 29 stores, 16 outlets and two warehouses.

“When we look around the world today, we see the aftermath of rampant consumption,” says Maroon. “We are constantly upgrading, always purchasing new off the rack. That comes with packaging, and packaging comes with pollution. Shipping comes with pollution. Every choice that we make as a consumer is a choice about the environment, and there’s no way to escape that.”

“At the same time, we do need clothes for work,” Maroon continues. “We do want to have beautiful things in our home. But we have enough in circulation already. So, when we’re going to a Goodwill, we’re making a choice to invest in not polluting the environment. We’re making a choice to invest in the recycle economy.”

Local artists use their creativity to design clothing for the Trash2Trends fashion show. Artists are allowed to use any materials that would otherwise end up in the landfill. ©Keep Orlando Beautiful

In another way to showcase recycled fashions, GICF has teamed up with Keep Orlando Beautiful to present the Trash2Trends Fashion Show, which takes place May 7 at the Orlando Science Center. The event, which is celebrating its 10th year, features more than 20 local artists who designed and created outfits entirely from upcycled materials. 

“The idea originally came about to raise awareness around the waste problem we have in Orlando,” says Madison Szathmary, Keep Orlando Beautiful coordinator, Streets & Stormwater Division. “We are blessed to have a plethora of talented local artists willing to volunteer their time to make these awesome designs.”

Local artists use their creativity to design clothing for the Trash2Trends fashion show. Artists are allowed to use any materials that would otherwise end up in the landfill. ©Keep Orlando Beautiful

Not only does the money raised support Keep Orlando Beautiful’s programs, but Szathmary also says it’s a great engagement piece.

“We hope people get inspired and think about the unusual stuff that gets thrown away,” she adds. 

Artists are allowed to use any materials that would otherwise be destined for the landfill, such as used pill bottles, vinyl construction fencing and old childhood stuffed animals. 

“One of my personal favorites was an angel-inspired outfit. It had wings that moved, and all of it was made from old computer parts,” says Szathmary. “The artist’s inspiration was planned obsolescence, the theory that electronics are essentially made to break, so you have to buy the new model that comes out in a year or two.”

“We never quite know what they’re going to come up with,” she says. “I always look forward to it.”