America Recycles Day occurs every November to raise awareness about recycling as the practice isn’t always as simple and straightforward as some may think. Even those with the benefit of curbside recycling cannot put anything and everything into the bins, such as textiles, electronics, and furniture. Many municipalities offer free programs where residents can drop off these harder-to-recycle items to be properly reclaimed or repurposed by organizations working to reduce waste and promote the circular economy.

Leading up to the event, we prepared an intake form for residents to complete a request for the furnishings they wished to donate. Unfortunately, we cannot always repair or repurpose every piece of furniture, like particle board pieces or mattresses, so the form allows us to assess and approve the items before the generous donor expends any time or energy hauling them to us. The promotions for the event on social media and the city website noted which types of items were acceptable and included the link to our online form, to which we were able to quickly respond and keep track of expected items.

Out of the 35 requests to donate, we approved 26 items for donation which is a great start for a first-time donation event! On the day of the collection event, we were incredibly lucky to be blessed with clear, sunny, blue skies, eliminating the need to set up any tents to keep the furniture (and ourselves!) dry. Our junk hauling partners Happy Hauler were on hand to help us receive the items and load them into their truck for delivery to our warehouse at the end of the day. 

The first item from the pre-approved list to arrive was a lovely armchair in such great condition still that the resident in the car behind the donors asked if she could have it! She did not want the chair for herself, but instead for a single mother she was helping to get back on her feet. Since part of our mission at Furniture Repair Bank is to help members of our community who are in need, we were more than happy to let this chair go to a new home immediately and bypass our process. The original donors were even kind enough to drive it to their nearby home to drop it off.

The rest of the day went smoothly, with only a few of the pre-approved items not arriving, either due to forgetfulness or perhaps the items found a new home through other means. At the end of the event, we had collected 35 pieces of furniture including lamps, dining chairs, end tables, tv stands, bookcases, coffee tables, and dressers. In total, that equates to 1,805 pounds of waste diverted from the landfill and 2,480 pounds of avoided CO2 emissions!

It was an overall successful day for our first city-partnered collection event. We look forward to participating in even more municipal recycling and reuse events in other King County locations to help residents divert furniture from landfills and into the homes of people who need it. Thank you to Waste Management and Kirkland city government for organizing this event, and to our hauling partners Happy Hauler for their helpful partnership!

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