April 17, 2013
Every day is Earth Day at Arc’s Value Village
Earth Day is Monday, April 22, and Arc’s Value Village Thrift Stores & Donation Centers have a remarkable story to tell. Believe it or not, in the past 30 years of selling and recycling, Arc’s Value Village has kept nearly 60 million pounds of clothing and household items out of landfills.
Clothing that doesn’t sell is baled and recycled.
In 2012 alone, Arc’s Value Village resold more than three million items and recycled around:
- 1.8 million pounds of clothing and textiles
- 75,000 pounds of shoes
- 30,000 pounds of purses and belts
- 8,000 pounds of sandals
- 60,000 pounds of metals
- 300 pounds of plastic bags
- 300,000 pounds of books
The stores work to reduce waste, too. With 4,000 volunteers helping at the stores throughout the year, the potential for trash from throwaway coffee cups alone is enormous. But, each store has a dishwasher, so staff and volunteers use real dishes instead of paper or Styrofoam cups.
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pdated LED and motion activated store lighting conserves energy. Programmable thermostats are set to consume less energy during off hours. And, hand dryers in restrooms replace linen service or paper towels and motion activated faucets reduce water consumption.
Arc’s Value Village also recycles cardboard, office paper, aluminum cans, glass drinking bottles, plastic drinking bottles, cell phones and eyeglasses, magazines, holiday light strings (working or not), canning jars, toner cartridges, and more. Value Village wants what is reusable, but it is good to know that if they can’t resell or reuse it, they’ll try to recycle it!
April 22 may be the official Earth Day…but at Arc’s Value Village, every day is Earth Day! It’s reusing and recycling with a purpose!
Revenue from the sale of donated items and recycling what can’t be sold helps fund The Arc Greater Twin Cities’ programs for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. To date, more than $23 million has been raised for The Arc Greater Twin Cities. So…feel great! Donate!