Helpsy Partnering with Helpsy, the northeast’s largest clothing collector, the Watertown Department Public Works collected over 4,000 pounds of textiles at a recent Recycling Event.
The following announcement was provided by Helpsy:
The clothing drive, held as part of a Watertown Recycling Event on Saturday, June 12th, was a huge success! HELPSY, the northeast’s largest clothing collector, was on hand to help with the collection of textiles and welcomed a steady flow of cars that resulted in 4,393 pounds of textiles being diverted from the local landfill.
For ongoing textile recycling, new collection bins have been placed at the Watertown Recycling Center at 76 Stanley Ave. Contracted by the town, HELPSY will service the bins on a regular basis.
The June 12th recycling event also included paper shredding and the collection of Styrofoam. For more information about Watertown recycling efforts, contact Lori Moran at lmoran@waterown-ma.gov.
Through a combination of clothing drives, collection bins, thrift store partners and curbside pickups, HELPSY diverts nearly 30 million pounds of textiles from landfills every year.
“HELPSY is dedicated to change the way people think about clothing recycling while adhering to the highest level of social and environmental performance,” says Dan Greene, CEO and Co-Founder of HELPSY. The organizations efforts have earned it a Certified B Corporation designation…using business as a force of good ™.
What does this group do with the good clothing that is donated? Will it go to people in need or will it be just reused for the materials? I would hate to see the clothing not be given to people who could use it as there are many other organizations that can be donated to in order to give the clothes a better after life. To have the bins available at the recycle center going forward is a great idea for damaged, outdated or unusable items so we don’t fill up the dumps.
HELPSY partners with organizations and municipalities to collect unwanted clothing and other textiles in more than 10 states. Through a combination of clothing drives, collection bins, thrift store partners and curbside pickups, HELPSY diverts 30 million pounds of textiles from landfills every year and has raised more than $10 million for not-for-profits in the process. Of the textiles collected 95% is upcycled or recyclable…It is first sorted by HELPSY partners and divided into grades. The higher grades go to thrift stores in North America and other secondhand markets around the world. The lower grades go to industrial use or things like stuffing and insulation. The clothing industry is the second most polluting industry in the world and recycling reduces the industry’s enormous environmental burden.