YORK, Pa - The holiday season comes with a lot of cheer and a lot of trash.
Especially for people who do their holiday shopping online - that means a lot of left over boxes.
"Everyone has a lot of empty boxes, especially this time of year with shopping online. So you get this box, now what do you do with it?"
Jennifer Ross Senior Director of Marketing and Public Relations for Goodwill said, "Everyone has a lot of empty boxes, especially this time of year with shopping online. So you get this box, now what do you do with it?"
Instead of throwing that cardboard in the trash, Amazon and Goodwill have come up with a solution; the Give Back Box program.
here's how it works:
you can use old boxes, like the ones from Amazon Prime, fill them with gently used items around the house.
Then you print out a free shipping label from givebackbox.com.
You can drop off that box at your post office, UPS store or even schedule a USPS pick up.
The donation will be sent to the nearest goodwill store.
"The biggest thing and the easiest thing to donate is clothing. We can take any type of clothing, whether it's shirts, hats, jeans, gloves, we can take it all," said Ross.
Once shipped, those items will be sorted by good will employees.
They say it's important to donate after the holidays.
Plus, a lot of people who use goodwill services are looking for work.
The organization believes it has helped 1 in every 200 hires in the united states.
Ross said, "We are helping people who want to help themselves. They're coming to us, they want to learn job skills, they want to learn that experience of being part of a work team."
The founder of the Give BackBbox program says an estimated 11 million tons of clothing and toiletries end up in US landfills ever year and the Environmental Protection Agency officials say 4 million tons of cardboard is throw away in a year too.
Companies like Overstock, Ann Taylor Loft and Levi's also help out with the give back box program.