CHARLOTTE, N.C. – If you do most of your Christmas shopping online, you probably have dozens of empty cardboard boxes from Amazon and other retailers scattered around your house. Before throwing them in the garbage or setting them on the curb, consider using those empty boxes to make donations to charities.
Amazon has partnered with “Give Back Box” to help shoppers donate items they no longer need or want and it doesn’t cost you anything for shipping or for boxes. Here’s how it works:
Take one of those empty boxes and fill it with items you want to donate. It could be DVDs, household items, clothes, toys or electronics. Be generous. The maximum weight allowed is 70 pounds per box.
Then, visit the website www.GiveBackBox.com to download a free shipping label. It won’t cost you a dime.
Tape up the box filled with items and affix the shipping label, then drop it off at a UPS store. You can also schedule a pickup for free from your home or leave it with other packages to go out at your office.
Give Back Box will route the box and your donations to a local charity organization.
You can print out all the free shipping labels you want. There’s no limit to your donations or good will.
And it isn’t just Amazon boxes. Any cardboard box will work. Just download, print and tape the free label to the box.
It’s a good way to declutter your closet and your child’s toy box. If you get a new charger or device for Christmas, box up the old one. GiveBackBox specifically asks for donations of Lego bricks. In 2019 the organization said it received around 50,000 pounds of Legos that were sent on to charities. In 2020, Give Back Box shipped 120,000 boxes packed with over 1.4 billion pounds of clothing that got a second life for someone who needed it.
It’s the most convenient way to help charities and it recycles boxes. Every year, about 100 billion cardboard boxes are manufactured in the United States. Don’t toss those boxes. They can help someone.