Recycle Brevard is based on the 3Rs - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. We work tirelessly to help keep items out of the landfills. We also encourage our friends to donate locally and support our neighbors through those donations. However, we recently discovered that there's a program called Give Back Box which makes it incredibly easy, particularly for those folks who have mobility or transportation issues, to donate their used household goods in addition to reusing cardboard boxes. Talk about waste diversion! It certainly doesn't hurt that part of Give Back Box's mission statement is that they're "dedicated to protecting our environment through the philosophy of reduce, reuse, and recycle by helping people to donate items to charities using the same box".
The Give Back Box program was founded in 2012 by Monika Wiela. It's teamed up with some of the biggest retailers in the country, including but certainly not limited to Overstock, Amazon, LEGO, Viva Terra and many, many others. And, in case I didn't mention this before, it costs you nothing at all to donate your goods. And when I say nothing, I mean nothing. You no longer have to try to fit driving your donations around in your already busy schedule; just mail it to the Give Back Box and they will take care of the rest.
Give Back Box explains the program as easy as this: Step 1: Open your Box; Step 2: Pack your Box; Step 3: Send your Box.Now I have to say that I, personally, have never used this program since I reuse all of my cardboard boxes in my garden - thanks to a suggestion from a good friend of mine - and donate locally, but I think this is a terrific program because it offers a solution to a segment of our population who can use some help in this direction.
So, pack your boxes, print a free label from Give Back Box's website and let me know what you think. It couldn't be much easier, that's for sure.
(Article contributed by Chris Kane, volunteer at Recycle Brevard)
