Westfield Free Market
One resident’s trash, another’s treasure: Declutter and Save at Westfield’s Free Market
The Westfield Green Team is organizing its fourth Free Market event on April 30, 2022 from 8am - 2:30pm. The goal of the Free Market event is to keep used but perfectly good items out of landfills and incinerators by promoting reuse. Westfield residents can donate their unwanted, gently-used items or browse donated items to take home for free, even if they didn’t donate. The event is like a giant yard sale, except everything is free. At last year’s event, the Green Team collected approximately four tons of household goods. Anything that is not taken will be collected by GreenDrop, an organization that accepts donations to assist the American Red Cross and other charitable programs, for distribution to deserving families or for recycling.
Why are we so passionate about this event?
The United States dumps hundreds of millions of tons of trash into landfills each year, and the volume of our waste continues to increase. Landfills are reaching maximum capacity, creating an issue that impacts all of us, as we are quickly running out of space for our piles of trash. Two of the more significant contributors to the trash in landfills are plastics and textiles. Decomposition times vary, but plastics and fibers can take hundreds of years to decompose. To make matters worse, both plastic and textile fibers buried in landfills can leach harmful chemicals and dyes that spread into the soil and groundwater. Organic textiles, like cotton and wool, emit methane into the atmosphere as they break down. Trash that doesn’t go into a landfill is likely incinerated, releasing harmful chemicals into the air, including carcinogens and greenhouse gasses.
The best approach to solving this problem is to REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE. The Free Market event lets us do just that! It’s a green alternative that has become more and more popular each year.
The Free Market event will be held on Saturday, April 30, 2022 at the South Avenue Station Parking Lot, rain or shine. This year, no advance registration will be required to drop off or browse for items.
- Donations can only be made by Westfield residents but non-residents can browse and take things.
- Drop off donations from 8am - 11am only. No donations will be allowed after 11am.
- Browsing and pick up will be permitted from 11:30am - 2:30pm.
- Charities are welcome to browse after 1pm.
- All donated items must be new or gently used, in workable condition and able to be carried by an individual.
- Categories of accepted goods include clothing, shoes, accessories, jewelry, books, kitchenware, housewares like blankets & bedding, CDs, DVDs, video games, flat screen TVs, electronics, sporting goods, small furniture, toys, musical instruments, lamps, gardening tools, educational workbooks, sleds and sporting goods.
- Goods that can’t be accepted include large appliances, mini refrigerators, air conditioners, tube TVs, computer monitors, food items, exercise equipment, mattresses, foam pads, large furniture, carpets, ladders, recyclables (like paper, cans, magazines).
- Items should be delivered in clearly labeled boxes, not plastic bags. Clothing should be boxed and labeled by size and category (womens, mens, teens, toddlers, infants, etc).
We hope to see you there!