Alissa MacMillan
Q: We’ve been trying to clean out a shed and I don’t want to put everything into landfill if it doesn’t need to go there. We have an old mattress and some sports shoes, even furniture and clothes. What’s the best way to get rid of this stuff?
A: That old adage about one person’s trash being another’s treasure is still true, and perhaps more important than ever for the environment.
“It’s wonderful that there is a treasure trove of stuff in people’s sheds, attics, and cupboards,” says Pauline McDonogh, Circular Economy Coordinator at the Southern Region Waste Planning Office based in Limerick. “When we open up those places and are thinking about discarding these items, if we can think about how they can be reused, it’s the starting point and the most important step.” And you never know what you might find.
“The items we have in an attic or a shed could be 20, 30, 50 years old; if they are in good condition, they probably are of immense value to loads of people.” Styles from the ‘80s and ‘90s are in fashion and, although you might see pieces as ancient, “If you’re 17 now, those clothes are 40 years old,” McDonogh says – positively vintage.
You might start by letting friends and family raid the stash, just in case they want something. “The best reuse is what we all do ourselves, locally within our homes and community,” she says. “It’s peer-to-peer and you didn’t use carbon to take it somewhere.”
For clothes, take a good look at your pieces. “There is a lot of work in trying to resell these items,” she notes. Putting them on resale sites can be time consuming, what with photographing, listing, pricing, and engaging with buyers, but McDonogh adds that a lot of sellers buy “consignment lots,” so they might be looking for big bags of clothing from the ‘80s or ‘90s, for example. They buy what’s often called “kilo sales,” she says, and if you can accurately describe what you have – an old pair of original Levi’s or a denim jacket from the ‘70s or ‘80s – “that could be of real interest.” The same goes for good quality shoes and sneakers.
Charity shops are another option, providing clothing for people in need and selling what’s been donated. They are constantly looking for material, but take note of the season, McDonogh advises: if you are out to lighten your summer closet, wait until spring when they might be able to sell it, because storage space is often limited. The Hallowe’en costumes? If you can hold on to them until September, shops will be much more appreciative.
TEXTILE BANKS
As for the textile banks, reusable clothing and shoes and good quality blankets, sheets, and curtains, are acceptable, but “make sure everything is clean and dry and folded or rolled, because if you just chuck them in loose, they can get damaged or dirtied.” McDonogh’s method is to roll them into a bag and fold the bag over, “almost like an envelope,” to protect the clothing, in case someone puts dirty items in. Put an elastic around shoes or tie them together by their laces, but, she adds, “the whole idea of donating clothing is for reuse, so if they are very old or very worn, they aren’t suitable.”
At the moment, soiled or worn clothing or shoes are considered waste, but “this is going to change,” McDonogh says, as extended producer responsibility comes into effect. In the coming years there will be fibre-to-fibre recycling and chemical recycling of those products. Bedding, like pillows and duvets, aren’t currently recyclable and aren’t accepted at textile banks. While waste management has no current solution, “some people donate them to animal charities,” or make beds for their own animals, although they will have a limited life.
Electronics can be taken at certain civic amenity and WEEE sites and vapes can be disposed of through the battery collection scheme, so dropped in the little blue boxes in retail stores.
As for that mattress, some of the local authorities accept mattresses at recycling centres, McDonogh says, “but it’s not universal.” Check at your near-by civic amenity site and look out for “amnesties,” or the months where they take in mattresses. Recycled mattresses usually go to a facility in County Longford, Cirtex, who takes them in, strips them, and rebuilds them.
“There are often a lot of household chemicals in sheds,” McDonogh adds, like paint. There is a paint recycling scheme at a number of the civic amenity sites in Cork, but it has to be relatively new paint, not what’s “23 years old, crusty, and full of bacteria” (often what you’ll find in the shed). Civic amenity sites will take the old stuff and look out for “household hazardous waste collection days,” which happen in different locations and accept household and garden chemicals for safe disposal, including things like paint, engine oil, and pesticides. They must be in their original packaging and identifiable with the product label.
What about the fact that all of this sounds exhausting?
“The one thing about modern life is that we’re time poor,” says McDonogh. “Sorting out can feel so overwhelming, but if we are thinking circular and thinking sustainable, we need to think about a second life for these materials.”
She suggests sorting and categorising your items, first gathering textiles, old electrical items, and furniture and trying to find homes and a new life for them (like letting old indoor furniture migrate its way to the garden).
“We often find that people had very good intentions but then they run out of time,” she adds. “They might have sorted, left the bag inside the front door, and keep meaning to do it, then suddenly they have visitors and they throw it out.”
BUY LESS & USE WHAT YOU CAN
But, if you can, “try to keep using it, think about a new life for it,” and there is no rush. All of these objects required time, effort, and resources to create, and “the world has so much stuff in it.”
Mywaste.ie has other tips and suggestions, so check them out if you’re unsure and to find out what’s accepted at nearby amenity sites. In the meantime, buy less and use what you have, for the earth’s sake and so you won’t have to clean out the shed again in another few years!
