Retail

Our recycling operation is one of the major ways we raise funds. Our Distribution Centre is situated at Smeaton Grange, where all goods are sorted and sent to our shops for sale. Shops are situated at Bargo, Camden, Ingleburn, Liverpool, Moss Vale, Narellan, Tahmoor, Katoomba, Penrith, Riverstone, Springwood and St Mary's.

Lifeline is first and foremost a charity organisation, providing many types of counselling services. We also like to be seen as a recycling organisation. A 'Green Organisation', helping to reduce land fill. Funds raised from the sale of other people's unwanted goods help support our 24 hour counselling service.

All goods donated to us are either brought into our larger retail outlets (our store at 10 Queen St, Narellan is happy to recieve donations) or collected from our clothing donation bins. After collection, all items are sent to our Distribution Centre, where they are sorted into many different categories.

We have approximately 46 clothing donation bins in an area that covers Katoomba to Liverpool to Bundanoon. Clothing bins are our main source of clothing donations.

All clothing and linen that has been donated is sorted into different categories. All items that are in very good condition are packed and sent to our 13 retail outlets to be sold. Linen that is not saleable is sold as dog blankets and even used as rugs for horses. The dog blankets and horse rugs are purchased by pet owners, dog breeders and horse owners. Certain materials such as cotton, towelling and flannelette, are cut for resale as industrial cleaning cloth and sold to a variety of businesses. Clothing that is not saleable is sold in bulk to other companies who reuse it as cut rags or send the lightweight garments overseas.

We are given many types of household items such as crockery, ornaments, cutlery, pictures, exercise equipment, the list goes on. All these items are sold through our retail outlets unless they are cracked, broken or dangerous.

One of our employees and her husband take charge of all the toys. They are sorted, cleaned, repaired, and the ones that are battery operated are sold with batteries in them. Books are checked for rips and stains, then boxed and sent to our shops.

We encourage the public to bring their furniture donations to our main shop at Narellan. We also provide a pick-up service for furniture donations operating in the Macarthur local area, five days a week. The driver will only pick up furniture that is in a saleable condition, as we do not have the facilities to carry out the repairs. The furniture is sold in our larger shops.

The only electrical items we do not accept are washing machines and dishwashers as we are unable to test these items successfully. We have a volunteer who is a retired electrician, testing our electricals before they are put out for sale.

We do have high waste disposal costs as unwanted, unsaleable items are constantly left at our donation bins and outside our shops. We must make arrangements to dispose of them ourselves. Wherever we can, we are constantly improving our retail outlets. Why not visit one and see the difference we make.