Heading from one year into the next, a lot of people clear out closets, cupboards, and storage spaces to make way for new items and a new year.The old stuff often goes to thrift stores like Goodwill of Colorado.Finding ways to create new life for things, said Goodwills Stephanie Bell.There is a difference between a donation, and something being dumped.Some items Goodwill has to trash or turn away from donations sites.Sometimes that's due to regulations like mattresses and televisions. We can't accept those items, chemicals, paint, hazardous materials, said Bell.Goodwill Colorado is also a leader in finding innovative ways to recycle.Bell said, Recycling used to mean kind of a very narrow thing, like, oh, I take my bottles or I take my soda cans to recycle. But it really, it really can be anything. There's a place for anything.Goodwill collaborates with a company that reuses plastic in a process that creates stronger railroad ties.Another innovator has found a way to reuse insulation from old coats and sleeping bags.They will take the goose or duck down out of that item and clean it through a proprietary process and make it ready to use in another item.There is a partnership with tech company Dell to recycle computers.Last year, Goodwill of Colorado diverted more than 208 million pounds of donated items out of our landfills, said Bell.More things than not can be repurposed, but there are also items that need to be dumped.Click here to see what is appropriate to donate at Goodwill and the etiquette of donating.