Where to donate clothes, books and food in Hong Kong

Run by married couple Richard Bowsie and Mavis Lui Kit-kan since 2006, 2nd Chance offers a platform for people to buy and sell secondhand furniture and decor at bargain prices. The pair saw a large amount of good furniture being thrown away each week and were determined to do something that would reduce this waste and help the environment. 2nd Chance also believes in giving back to the community, which is why five percent of all money received from items in the ‘Antiques & Collectables’ section goes towards other charities like Children’s Heart Foundation and Po Leung Kuk. And if you’re selling items to 2nd Chance, it encourages individuals to donate the money to support charities too. 

With the belief that sustainable fashion is a way of life, A break 93 actively encourages people to recycle their old clothing for reuse. The store itself, located in Causeway Bay, focuses on selling high-quality pre-owned clothing, while their online store offers a much wider variety of items to select from. A break 93 will also take unwanted clothing items. Anything that can be resold will go on their shelves and racks for 40 days. After that, unsold items will either be donated to charities, put up for charity sales, or sold at a discounted price. Read more about the donation criteria on their official website.

Christian Action’s mission is to serve the poor, displaced, abandoned, and disadvantaged throughout Hong Kong and China. Christian Action accepts all sorts of donations including brand-new or used clothing, accessories, toys, shoes, handbags, books, small appliances, and housewares. The items will then either be sold through Christian Action’s Community Sales Outlets or distributed to service recipients in Hong Kong and rural areas in China like Haixi and Guoluo. To know more about their Green Collection Programme, visit christian-action.org.hk for more details.

Food Angel, one of the city’s pioneering food charities, takes any surplus food from households and food companies to feed those in need with their meal delivery services. The NGO has a great food rescue programme where it accepts any dry food and drinks (with packaging intact), fresh fruits and vegetables, oils and seasonings, frozen food, bakery items, and any edibles that are two weeks or more from the expiry date. Food Angel has numerous food collection points and boxes to make it easy and convenient for drop-offs. 

JupYeah – which means to pick up or pack something in Cantonese – is a great online platform to swap things. That means any surplus or undamaged clothes, shoes, electronics, and anything else you can think of can go up on the website. Likewise, you can just 'jup' any items that have caught your eye. There’s no money transaction, and it’s a great tool to share useful goods as a means of reducing waste and overconsumption. JupYeah often holds physical on-ground events and pop-ups too, so keep an eye out on their Facebook page.

Visit jupyeah.com for more info

Kids grow out of their clothes very quickly, so it's especially wasteful and tragic to throw out something that’s only been worn half a dozen times. That’s where Retykle comes in; an online platform for those seeking secondhand kids’ clothes, pre-loved maternity clothes, and nursery goods. Retykle offers services to collect unwanted clothing, and clean and deliver outfits you pick online. For any successful sale, you can either take cash or credit to buy other stuff on the website. Should your donated goods not quite meet its standards, Retykle can help you donate them to charity instead.

Established in 1964, this store is not your ordinary second-hand book shop, it’s also a stray cat sanctuary. Many of the books here are in Chinese, but it’s worth a visit if you’re interested in books in other foreign languages, from Nordic thrillers to Japanese manga. Remember not to pet the cats though, as they’re used to being left alone.

New arrivals and book recommendations frequently appear on its Facebook page, with snippets of the bookstore-dwellers and shoutouts to generous readers who donated books (and canned cat food) to the stalwart bookstore.

Compared to the UK, charity shops are rather uncommon in Hong Kong and Salvation Army Family Stores are among the few. Its recycling programme welcomes any donation of clothing, shoes, bags, books, toys, DVDs and CDs (if they still exist), and any small home electrical appliances in working order and good condition. All the donated items would then be sorted, distributed, and sold at its charity shops across Hong Kong and Macau, which help fund The Salvation Army’s community programmes. Some goods will even go directly to the homeless, former prisoners, and elderly folks living alone. Check out their full list of collection points.

A non-profit organisation that actively combats waste in the fashion industry, Redress makes it easy for busy Hongkongers to donate their clothes by offering numerous collection boxes across the city. The bulk of the donated clothes goes directly to local charities, while the top-shelf outfits and items would be re-sold at Redress' physical store in Sham Shui Po.