Labor Day traditionally signals the official end of summer and the imminent arrival of fall, the time of the year when we perform the usual change-of-season ritual of going through our closets to get ready for the colder months. Gone are the flip-flops, bathing suits and light cotton clothing, replaced by boots, coats, and wool sweaters.
But what do you do with that out-of-season wardrobe?
Discarding lightly worn clothing is clearly a waste. The most practical option is to donate it. The same goes for last year’s cell phone or your unwanted computer.
That is why the Department of Sanitation is again sponsoring its “Fall 2007 Electronics Recycling and Clothing Donation Events” to provide you with a way to dispose of these unwanted items responsibly.
Here is when and where you can donate your lightly worn clothing, as well as recycled desktop and laptop computers, monitors, printers, scanners, keyboards and mice, television sets, VCRs, DVD players and cell phones in Queens:
On Saturday, September 29 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. John’s University Alumni Hall Parking Lot on the corner of Utopia Parkway and Union Turnpike. Cars enter at Gate 3 on Union Turnpike and 80th Road.
Sanitation donation events are made possible through the assistance of the following organizations:
Donation of clothing and linens: Goodwill Industries
Electronics recycling: Lower East Side Ecology Center.
Partial funding provided by Best Buy, Intel, and Toshiba.
Site Partners: Herbert Lehman College, NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, St. John’s University and Staten Island Mall/General Growth Properties.
Only New York residents may drop off material (limited to five pieces per vehicle), no businesses allowed. The first 100 people to drop off electronics will receive a $5 Best Buy gift card!
For further information, you may call 3-1-1 or visit www.nyc.gov/sanitation.
After donating your unwanted clothes and recycling your electronics, you will feel good about yourself and about having done the right thing. It just might be the perfect time to go out and reward yourself with some brand new clothes or that new gizmo!
John J. Doherty is the New York City Commissioner of Sanitation
