New Englanders have an old saying: use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. It’s good advice for a household — and surprisingly good advice for a business.
Every company accumulates surplus. The office furniture that doesn’t survive a renovation. The returns that can’t go back on the shelf, the equipment replaced in last year’s upgrade, the food approaching its sell-by date. Most of it goes in a dumpster, and disposal isn’t free. You pay someone to haul away things that still work.
Meanwhile, nonprofits across the state are trying to source exactly what you’re throwing out. At Partners for World Health, our entire model is built on that gap. Health care facilities donate their surplus of high-quality medical supplies and equipment that would otherwise be discarded, and we match them with organizations here in Maine and clinics overseas.
We’ve spent years on both sides of the loading dock, and the lessons apply to any business, in any industry. Here’s what I’d tell a Maine business leader staring at a full storage room.
Audit what you’re paying to throw away
Before you can donate surplus, you have to see it. Walk your operation and ask: What do we discard on a regular schedule? What’s sitting in storage because nobody wants to deal with it? What will the next renovation, rebrand or equipment upgrade generate?
Then put a number on disposal, including dumpster fees, hauling contracts and staff time. Donation often costs less than disposal and donated inventory can offer tax benefits as well.
Match your surplus to a mission
There’s probably a Maine nonprofit built for it.
Whatever your business generates, someone in Maine has organized around collecting it. Replacing furniture? Furniture Friends in Westbrook picks up usable furniture from hotels, restaurants, retirement communities and furniture retailers and delivers it to families furnishing a first apartment after homelessness, domestic violence or resettlement.
In the food sector? Good Shepherd Food Bank in Auburn runs one of the state’s oldest business-nonprofit partnerships. Hannaford helped pioneer retail food donation with the food bank back in the 1980s, and today grocers, producers and farms channel surplus through a network of hundreds of pantries and meal programs in every Maine county.
Upgrading your office or your technology? Ruth’s Reusable Resources in Portland collects surplus office supplies, paper, furniture and computers from businesses and runs the largest free store for teachers in the country. Ruth’s has redistributed more than $110 million worth of materials to Maine schools — the same pencils, binders and laptops businesses were discarding while students down the road went without.
If your surplus doesn’t fit an obvious category, call the Maine Association of Nonprofits or United Ways of Maine and describe what you have. You’ll be surprised how fast a match turns up.
Ask first, then build a routine
Call before you load the truck. Every nonprofit maintains a list of what it can and can’t accept, and an unusable donation doesn’t help anyone — it just shifts your disposal bill onto an organization with a smaller budget than yours.
Once you know what fits, make it regular. A named contact on each side, an agreed list of items, pickups built into your operating calendar. A one-time donation is a nice gesture, but a standing arrangement is infrastructure.
Count it, and tell the story
Track what you divert. This could be by items, pounds, disposal dollars saved or estimated value donated. Those numbers belong in your sustainability reporting, and they matter to your people. Employees want to work somewhere that doesn’t send working goods to the landfill, and customers notice too.
None of this requires a foundation, a giving committee or a big check. It requires looking at what’s already in your back room and making a phone call.
The furniture in your storage unit, the pallet you can’t sell, the equipment gathering dust after an upgrade. Trust me, somebody in Maine needs it. Use it up. Or better yet, pass it on.
