Goodwill Industries International with Sydney Munoz

https://www.goodwill.org/

The future is bright with Goodwill Industries International 

Over 4.4 Billion pounds of goods collected just last year! 

How can Goodwill help keep even more out of the landfill? 

Less thank 1% of textiles is recycled and that number could be over 60%! 

https://anewearthproject.com/collections/new-earth-approved

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-connors/

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This podcast is an independent production and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2022.

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Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors. Today's guest is Sydney Munoz, the manager of sustainability at Goodwill Industries International. How are you, Sydnee? Yeah, I'm doing great. Thank you, Cory. I appreciate the invite to be on your podcast. Thank you so much. We were talking about this before, we started recording and that I just had to have you on the show. You, you gave such an impressive presentation at a recent event I went to, and I just, was so thankful that you agreed to coming on, so thank you again. Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. Happy to be here. So you have a very high level position at a really great organization that I respect a lot, and I was hoping that you would tell us a little bit about your background before we get into, sustainability focus. Yeah, happy to. Thank you so much. so a little bit about my background. I've been working in the sustainability field really since undergrad, and that's where my sustainability work started, at my university sustainability resource center, where I served as the student director. and my education, has really been focused on business marketing and sustainability. And then I have a master's in sustainability leadership, from Arizona State University. And throughout my career, my work has been focused on a number of different topic areas, so leading projects, programs, and initiative on sustainability with a focus of textiles, circularity, waste reduction, clean energy, and alternative transportation, primarily within government, nonprofit, and university spaces. Then specifically some of the work that I've, been leading is focused on textile circularity recycling initiatives, project and program management on sustainability, community engagement and leading initiatives to reduce waste and emissions. And then before joining Goodwill Industries International, I worked for really great nonprofit called Revolve, and that was a nonprofit that helped other nonprofits go solar through solar financing. And at Revolve I led our solar ambassador training program. Which was to train college students in solar renewable energy, and then also led the organization's community engagement efforts, and then concluding. At the end of last year, I served a three-year term as a board member for the American Solar Energy Society, where I provided strategic direction and guidance to support their mission of transitioning to a hundred percent renewable energy. Yeah, it's incredible what a background. Good for you. it sounds like your focus has been on sustainability and circular economy and, alternative energies or clean energies for a very long time. Well done. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. So I'm excited to talk about Goodwill. So Goodwill is something that a lot of people wouldn't think would be on a sustainable packaging show. but I want to, dispel that myth and tell the community why. why I think, I thought that you would be such a great guest on the show because I think Goodwill has a future as a really bright spot in the sustainability world. you're already doing great things, recycling, reusing, reducing waste, all these things. But let's talk about Goodwill Industries. what is your focus? What is your role? What is, a day in the life of Sidney Munoz look like? Yeah, I appreciate that. so, as you mentioned, I work for Goodwill Industries International. I'm the manager of sustainability and I've been here for nearly three years, as of, November. And so before getting into my role and kinda your question, I'd love to just provide a brief overview of Goodwill to set the context for the audience. so Goodwill Industries International, we are a membership services organization and we support. More than 150 autonomous local goodwill organizations across the United States and Canada. And overall, those represent 3,300 stores and donation centers. we like to say that we're America's neighbor with a location within 10 miles of 83% of the US population. And I feel like that stat is really important, for the circular economy and providing that ease of access to our donors. and so every time you drop off a bag of donations at Goodwill, those donations really go to fuel our mission, which is to provide workforce development, job training, and career advancement opportunities for people who experienced challenges to employment. so a little bit about our impact. Last year we served 2.1 million people and allowing us to really make a significant impact. In the communities we serve, and then to help put that number into perspective every day. Goodwill helps nearly 400 people find a good job. And so a little bit about my role at Goodwill. it's really focused on supporting our members, the 150 plus, on a number of different sustainability topics and initiatives. My primary focus is on textiles and, helping, leading and supporting the Goodwill Network on textile circularity and recycling initiatives. textile recycling is really an emerging market within the US and globally. Less than 1% of textiles are recycled today, and so through our work, we're really working with stakeholders across the value chain to build our textile recycling and processing capabilities within our network. And then in addition to the work on textile circularity, I also support the network on a number of other sustainability projects and initiatives, along with really providing a platform and opportunity for the network to share success stories and collaborate on sustainability initiatives since I think that's the beauty of our network. 150, as a few Goodwills really try out different initiatives. It can scale very quickly across our network and make a large impact. Impressive stats. Wow. Oh my gosh. so when you say 2.1 million served, is that the number of customers or employees, or both? Yeah, so that is, all of the individuals that we serve through our mission programs. Okay. And so each of our 150. D, autonomous local Goodwills all have their own mission. It's all centered on workforce development, but it might look different in different regions because the job market and job opportunities are different across the United States and Canada, depending on kind of what area you're in. And so those 2.1 million people served. Includes individuals that we helped, gain, employment, through upskilling, job training, resume review, just general career, support. So all of our, support on the mission side is what that number represents. It's really impressive. I didn't tell you this before, but I worked with your Goodwill location in, Hillsborough before and got Oh, awesome. Got to see in Oregon, got to see behind the scenes and, it was one of your shop Goodwill locations and I was. Totally impressed with the staff, the team members, just the way that, they were, providing employment to otherly abled and just, it was really impressive. Great people. Just the, it was a, like a family environment almost in there. So I wanted to share that news with you. Oh, I appreciate that. And I think for us, it all comes back to the mission. That's why I wanted to share those stats. even our work, everything really goes back to the mission, and I love that you had that experience. whenever I go into the stores or the back rooms, everything is always for, how can we, support the mission further. And so that's really important and always, grounding our work that we do within any of the sustainability spaces and or mission spaces. It's, it's really an impressive thing. It's, I think it's something that other people can look to for, the right way to do things. so you guys are really leading the way and I wanna, thank you for that. I was really impressed with your presentation at the Sustainable Packaging Coalition event, which is why I asked you to come on the show. but. I wanted to see how has Goodwill become such a great part of the circular system? I get it, I think I get the process for used home goods, things like that, but I think you're stepping up into textile and even packaging, recycling now. Can you talk about that transition into that? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. And I'm, it was an honor to present the Sustainable Packaging Coalition conference in the spring and have that opportunity. so I'm, I was honored to participate there, and so I, Goodwill, I, we really play a critical role in powering the circular economy. We're one of the largest collectors of used goods and promoters of reuse, and it's not something we've been focused on just for the past few years, or even decades. It's really been something that we've been focusing on since our founding. And so for over a hundred. And 25 years. And we like to say, well before terms like sustainability or the circular economy or common language, since our founding, our focus has been on keeping items in reuse and keeping goods in circulation for as long as possible, and our vision is to release. Set the global standard for product stewardship by providing, measurable positive impact on people, planet, on prosperity. That's very important to us. The three pillars of sustainability and making sure that we're prioritizing all three of those equally and all of our decisions. and specifically our aim is for post retail products to go to verifiable, traceable markets with minimal waste and positive impacts on communities both locally and globally. At Goodwill. something that's very important to us is that we follow the zero waste hierarchy and we always wanna make sure that we prioritize reuse first. that's our bread and butter as we like to say. We wanna make sure that if an item can be reused, that it's going into our stores and has the opportunity to be reused, and resold, to members of the community. We know that unfortunately, not everything is designed to be reused or made to be reused. And so that's where our work is with partnering with stakeholders across the value chain to really develop those solutions that are circular, traceable, and scalable. And that really covers everything from plastic bags to electronics. We get everything under the sun. and so, That's, very exciting for us. And so one example that I talked about, at the conference was our work with Plastic Film Recycling. So I'd love to bring that here and highlight that work. Okay. Please. so we know that, not everything that gets donated to Goodwill has the intention of being resold. so when you're collecting your donations that you bring to Goodwill, most donors will put them in some type of. Box or plastic bag. And so if that's, comes to mind, that's how we receive most of our donations. but we can't resell the plastic bags. and so several of our local organizations are partnering with a partner called Trex, to really transform plastic filament bags into composite decking products. in 2014, this partnership diverted 365,000 pounds of plastic bags from the landfill, which is the equivalent of 11 tractor trailers. Full of bailed plastic. And we know that number will grow significantly this year as we've more than tripled the number of Goodwills that are participating when within this program. And this partnership was spearheaded by three local Goodwills, including Goodwill of Delaware County, Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake, and Goodwill of Greater Washington. And so I think this example really shows that as, a couple of Goodwills really start an initiative. It can really. Spread throughout the network, as these initiatives are put forward, 365,000 pounds of plastic. Yeah. I want, I wanna reiterate that to the audience in one year. And not every, not even every Goodwill was involved yet. This is the potential here is incredible. And I think you're right. Oftentimes I'll donate to Goodwill and it'll be a bag of clothes. And of course the, you don't assume the bag will get reused. You hope it'll get recycled. And it sounds like that's what you're actually doing now, which is, It's really impressive, and I know that Trex is a great company. I, I've, had them on the podcast before. they're doing great things. They're recycling millions and millions of pounds of plastic and, used wood lumber, pallets, things like that from the indu, industrial waste stream. turning it into a reusable, building materials, which is really awesome. And those materials last for decades and decades. So well done. Yeah. Thank you. And yeah, we love that those things that, weren't intended to go into our store floor are being able to have a new life and last for decades. so that, that's something that we're very excited about through that partnership. I think the potential here is, almost overwhelming. it could almost become some, like a main focus of goodwill, with, the onset of these extended producer responsibility laws. It sounds like, Goodwill is gonna be, a really great partner for, or I should say Goodwill Industries International, is gonna be a great partner for society to, to be more sustainable. Can you talk, more about some of these insights on a circular future that, Goodwill, will be a part of? Yeah. Yeah, I'd be happy to. So, I'll focus, on plastics and textiles and I have a few other, examples outside of circularity that I'd love to talk about. but as I mentioned, I think we're really a key leader in powering the circular economy is being one of the biggest promoters of reuse. our entire model is based off of keeping products and circulation, and it has been, since our founding. and so. we really engaged in a number of sustainability initiatives, whether that's at the national, regional, or local levels, aimed at extending the useful life of donations. So last year we recovered the value of 4.4 billion pounds of used goods diverting them. From the landfill and giving them a second life. so there are countless examples. I'll start with one on textiles. so really to advance textile to textile recycling. As a network, we're building the capabilities to produce textile feedstock, to meet recyclers diverse feedstock specifications and needs. so over the past several years, we've been engaging in various. Studies to understand the recyclability of our post retail textiles, which are textiles that don't sell within our traditional retail streams. and through those studies, we've tested more than 400,000 garments for fiber content. So for example, polyester, cotton, acrylic, et cetera. Which has created the largest database of its kind thus far, and our studies have showed that 60% of Goodwill's post retail textiles can be recycled with current technologies available today, many of which are currently in the process for planning their first pilot or full scale, locations. That's a really impressive number. I didn't, I had no idea that you, that Goodwill was in involved with research. Well done. Yes. Yeah. we're very excited about that study. and, we're excited to have tested so many across so many different, locations and geographies.'cause as we know, there's different clothing that are worn in different climates. And so, we're very excited about that study. it's sad to see the piles and piles of clothes that don't get recycled that end up in landfills. you hear about these stats and things like that, like you said, less than 1%. So the fact that 60% can be recycled, and that number's even higher. If we look at. Can be reused or resold. I know that's very cool now to wear vintage clothes and I think that's, part of kind of that goodwill mystique that people like. but I'm really, blown away by those numbers. who was that part of your spearheading to look at those, materials for recycling? Yeah, so this was, in partnership with a number of our local Goodwills. about 25 to 30 Goodwills participated, in these studies, it was, multi, year studies looking at different months because we know that textiles of course, changed seasonally. maybe you're wearing more of a cotton shirt in the summertime versus a wool sweater in the wintertime. And then we also know that, preferences also change whether you're looking at. Florida, compared to Michigan. And so our goal was really to get a really good viewpoint of what our network thus, the United States and Canada. What is the fiber content of those materials, to really help us be more informed, as we're, looking at textile recycling and our capabilities and building those out. It sounds like, and I wonder if possibly I've heard, that sometimes textiles can be turned into packaging materials, ground up and then made into, ins, insulated, packaging materials or things like that. Is that something that you guys would consider? Yeah, I think, textile to textile recycling is our primary focus. being able to keep items within kind of their hierarchy. so textile to textile recycling is very important to us. But also there's other, nonwovens applications, like what you mentioned, installation in cars, et cetera. So. Think there's lots of different pathways. and I think the beauty of our network is that there's, we're across the US and Canada, so lots of different markets and opportunities for involvement depending on the region and what's available, within that region. Well, thank you so much Sydney. This has been insightful and I really appreciate all the hard work that you're doing and your team is putting into this. it seems to be a very bright future. Anything else you wanna tell us before we, end the show here? Yeah. Yeah. I'll, highlight a couple of other, work that we're doing in textiles, if that Thank you is okay with you, please? Yeah. perfect. So, one of them is on traceability. So we're currently halfway through a traceability study, which will really support a multi-stakeholder initiative to follow our global journey of secondhand. Styles and this study is to really inform, reuse and recycling strategies for us and help shape industry standards for traceability and product lifecycle stewardship. and then another one, that I mentioned at the conference as well is that we're partnering with reju, a progressive textile polyester recycler, and WM on a multi-year initiative to advance textile recycling in North America. So as a group, we're really developing a collaborative model for regional textile collection, sortation, reuse, and recycling, intended to divert more textiles, from the waste stream and into recovery cycles, including resale and recycling. and then I mentioned, our work with t Trex, which we're very excited about for plastic bag. Recycling. And then one other that I'll mention not related to textiles and plastic, but more on the electronic waste side, is through some valued partnerships. We are also properly managing e-waste for communities. so for electronics that can be reused, we really prioritize, reuse and conduct, complete electronic memory wipes to ensure safety. But we also provide free electronic recycling at more than 2000 locations. Across the US and Canada with our partnership with Dell Reconnect, and we've diverted more than six, hundred and 20 million pounds of e-waste from landfills since 2004. So that's a little bit of an overview of some of the work that we're doing on circularity and recycling. That's amazing. I didn't know about the electronics. I did see them in kind of the behind the scenes working to, like you said, and I watched 'em do it, wipe the memory, make sure that power's up, make sure it's in good working order, and then they would sell it on shop goodwill, which I think is really neat to have that, so you can buy from Goodwill anywhere in, in the world really. Yeah. That's neat. Definitely. Yeah. Thank you. Great. Well, thank you again Sydney. This has been awesome and I really appreciate your wisdom and keep up the great work. I'm really impressed. Yeah, thank you Corey. I really appreciate the opportunity to be on here and speak on the podcast. Thank you.