UAE is the shopper’s heaven, so it’s not a surprise if residents keep buying things without giving a second thought. They often don’t even think if they really need the new items or what to do with the items they buy when it is of no use. Thanks to luxuries in UAE, people put on weight and can’t fit in their old clothes just months after arriving here. Many people keep changing their wardrobe according to new fashion trends! Changing personal electronic devices or even changing the home interior is common here.
Finding repair shops is difficult in the UAE, or sometimes repair costs are so high that people prefer buying new things just because they can’t fix the item they already have at a good price.
Around 80% of the UAE population is expatriate. Generally, a small number of people buy a house & stay in that house for many years. Otherwise, most people keep moving from one place to another inside the UAE, or ex-pats keep moving out of the UAE.
As a result of all these habits or trends, there is a big junk problem in the UAE. Many a time, we know the things that are now junk for us are still useful for others, so we continue to store them in storerooms or garages from one house to another for years. Most people throw them away. So you always get to see things in good condition, lying around garbage bins.
Some kind people give away things to security, car wash personnel, domestic help, or charities stall in malls during the holy month of Ramadan. I used to do the same, but keeping things for a year to wait till these donation stalls pop up again doesn’t solve the junk problem at your home. I have given away so many things to the watchman and domestic helpers that they started saying they don’t have enough space to keep those things.
Have you thought of re-using, upcycling & re-purposing things you don’t need?
Before moving on to where to donate goods in the UAE, I would like to bring your attention to upcycling, repurposing, and reusing. Have you ever thought that maybe on the weekend, instead of scrolling through the screen, you can take up a project, include your family and kids and upcycle or re-purpose an unwanted item? Maybe you can create gifts for your family and friends by re-using items you don’t need? Here is one such DIY example of re-using old pair of denim to create a useful item for home. Here are some examples of creatively reusing household items for different functions.
WHERE TO DONATE UNWANTED ITEMS IN UAE?
1. Bait Al Khair
You can drop your unwanted furniture, clothing, toys, etc., at any center of Bair Al Khair.
2. Al Ihsan Charity Center
This center provides help to those families who lost their breadwinner due to death, divorce, negligence, jail sentence, or deportation. The center provides these families necessities like new/used furniture, kitchen appliances, clothing, shoes, personal items, assistance to acquire their health cards & medical prescriptions, schooling supplies for children.
3. Dar Al Ber Society
As long as they are sealed, unused & not expired, your unwanted medicines are accepted & redistributed to needy people. You need to drop off the medicines at their location. They also accept used household items like furniture.
4. Holy Trinity Thrift Centre, Oud Metha
You can donate your unwanted things to Holy Trinity Thrift Centre in Oud Metha, which they sell at a meager price.
5. Aid in Motion
It’s started by volunteers in Dubai and calls for donations during a crisis. Their volunteers are dotted around the city. They come and pick up your donated stuff. Read my experience of donating unwanted stuff to Aid in Motion.
6. Clothes & Shoe Donation Boxes
You get to see clothes banks dotted around communities in Dubai. It’s a convenient place to drop old clothes, shoes, bags. These items are distributed to needy people or sold at a low price to raise funds for charity. I have been using these bins for two years now. You can also donate your clothes to Thrift For Good and Lahum; these social businesses donate 100% of profits to support children.
7. Maria Christina Foundation
They accept all personal & household stuff, including furniture, clothes, etc. You can call their personnel in Bur Dubai/ Mirdiff/Um Suqueim.
8. Donate Books
You can donate books at the Old Library. Their working hours, Saturday to Thursday: 10 AM to 6 PM. Call them at 04 341 4777.
9. Donate Pet supplies & food
If you have unwanted pet supplies and pet food, you can donate them to K9Friends and Feline Friends. You can also donate used blankets and pet supplies to Animals and Us in Fujairah.
10. Emirates Red Crescent
This is also a familiar name; we get to see their donation boxes, especially during Ramadan. In addition, Emirates Red Crescent help other countries during times of crisis like a natural disaster.
11. Rags to Riches
It’s a Facebook group; volunteers make clothes for needy people out of bed sheets, pillowcases, blankets, leftover clothes, etc. They accept a donation of these items.
12. Dubai Cares
This charity is popular for old clothes donation, mainly because they place boxes in malls during Ramadan or any crisis
13. Donate Hair
Have you thought of donating your hair after a haircut? You can help some cancer patients if you donate your hair. Volunteers in Dubai organized an event to donate hair previously; read the article about it.
14. Donate Medicines
Dubai Health Authority pharmacies, healthcare centers, and hospitals (Ex. Rashid, Latifa hospitals) accept new unopened, and expired medicines. Residents can return these medications to DHA pharmacies located across Dubai at no cost. Expired medicines are disposed of with proper procedures, and unexpired, unopened medicines are checked and then donated to charities.
15. Freecycle
You can give away items for free on the freecycle group. There are also Facebook groups for freecycle in Dubai & other emirates and a separate group for Abu Dhabi.
16. Al Noor special needs training center
You can donate items at their Al Barsha facility. They generally sell those items during events to raise funds for their special needs training center. I dropped my son’s toys and books at their Al Barsha facility.
17. Spectacles/Goggles- Opticians in UAE
The old spectacles are accepted by various opticians in UAE, including Yateem Optician & Al Jaber Opticals. Hopefully, they redistribute these spectacles to people with poor sight but who can’t afford spectacles.
18. Take my junk
This is a private organization, collects junk from individuals & companies & redistributes it to laborers. Some of the junk they sell to keep running their organization, the junk which is not usable they recycle. You can call 800 junk to arrange a pickup; they will come & pick up your junk. The slogan of Take my junk rightly says, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.”
19. Second Hand Flea Markets
If you have a huge pile of unwanted items and want to get rid of them, booking a table in the flea market is a good idea. Flea markets are popular among taxi drivers, maids. You can sell your stuff for a low price or even give it away to whoever is interested in taking it. Read my experience of getting rid of my unwanted household stuff at a second-hand flea market.
20. Baby & Kids Items
Kids’ items are always so dear to us, so I am sure these pile up more than many other things. You can book a table at the baby bazaar, which takes place in many more locations now. This is a great way of selling pre-loved kid’s items.
Donate your kid’s toys to Toys With Wings; they collect used toys and distribute them inside refugee camps, orphanages, centers for disabled children, and pediatric hospitals worldwide.
Recycle
If you can’t donate an item, please make sure not to throw it in the garbage bin and contribute to the landfill. The last resort should be recycling. You can find a complete guide on where to recycle in the UAE, including the locations and names of recycling services/organizations.
Dubai Municipality can help you remove bulky waste such as furniture and appliances from your home instead of throwing it away. However, I recommend using it as a last resort, especially when the bulky items are broken and can not be donated to any charity.
At the end of this article, you can also download our free e-book about the ‘Recycling & Composting Checklist,’ which will provide you a Setup & Operations checklist for recycling and composting at your home and office.
Now when you donate your unwanted stuff to the charity, you help people in need, but you also help reduce landfill waste. You can read here some waste facts of UAE to get the idea of how much waste is created in the UAE.
Sustainability Tribe has launched the #ZeroWasteUAE initiative to promote a less waste, healthy and sustainable lifestyle in UAE; read here about it.
If you are new to Sustainability Tribe, start your sustainable lifestyle journey with us, and don’t forget to join our Tribe!
Note: We do not accept any donated items at Sustainability Tribe, so please get in touch with the above-listed charities directly for donating items. We are a business sustainability consultant and can help make your organizations more sustainable or create CSR activities/events for your office, including educational and awareness talks, workshops, team building, fun learning activities, etc. We can also deliver executive sustainability coaching for your staff or individual professionals.
WANT TO MAKE YOUR HOME MORE SUSTAINABLE?
You can also access our self-paced online course, Sustainable Home Masterclass. This training is designed to give attendees a complete guide to sustainable homes, from selecting a property to what changes you can make in your existing property, including budget-friendly options. This course will also introduce green buildings and sustainable material choices. Plus, develop conscious consumption choices to select sustainable household items and develop simple habits for a healthy home. After this course, you will be able to gain enough knowledge to reduce your utility bills and cost elsewhere, improve your family’s wellness as well as contribute to climate action right from your home.
