TEXTILE RECYCLING A GROWING PROBLEM

HELPSY Battling on Multiple Fronts in NY

Textile waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the country and HELPSY, the largest clothing collection company on the East Coast is tackling this problem head on in New York.

“HELPSY’s environmental mission is to radically change the way people think about clothing reuse and recycling. In the process of serving this mission, it has created hundreds of living wage jobs, saved municipalities millions of dollars in disposal fees, and has reduced the enormous environmental burden of the second most polluting industry in the world,” says Dan Green, Co-Founder and CEO of HELPSY.

With a facility located in White Plains, New York, HELPSY has expanded its presence in the state by partnering with nonprofits, collaborating with municipalities to host textile bins, and hosting clothing drives with schools, small businesses, and corporations.

Most recently, a nonprofit organization, Adults and Children with Disabilities (ACLD) located in Bethpage, NY partnered with HELPSY to place collection bins throughout Long Island. The collection bins will gather gently used, outgrown, worn, torn, stained or otherwise unwanted textiles and divert these items from local landfills. The goal is to extend the useful life of clothing by reusing, re-wearing or recycling these textiles. HELPSY achieves this goal by sorting items and more than 80% of what is collected is then resold in North America to a combination of online thrift partners and secondhand markets.  A portion of the funds support ACLD programs for Children and Adults with Disabilities. Similarly, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Westchester has worked with HELPSY for years, offering home collection of unwanted textiles while raising money for the organization’s mentoring programs.

In partnership with HELPSY, Westchester County and the City of White Plains have set up clothing dropoff bins to collect discarded textiles and divert them from the local landfills. The collection bins not only help to preserve the environment, but they also save the municipalities tipping fees (waste disposal and carting fees), and HELPSY offers reimbursement per pound for items collected… funds that can then go to support other residential recycling efforts.

Over the past year, clothing drives, organized and hosted by schools, companies and organizations throughout the state have diverted thousands of pounds of textiles. To name just a few, drives were hosted by Westchester’s Briarcliff & Rivertown Rotary clubs, NYC based Oxford Properties and the PSA Community Council 6, a Brentwood Elementary School on Long Island, and this spring HELPSY will participate in an Earth Day Fair hosted by Ostego County Conservation Association in upstate NY.

The environmental benefits of textile recycling are well documented and are significant steps towards a more sustainable lifestyle.  According to the Recycling Economic Information Project, supported by the EPA, recycling not only conserves natural resources but also strengthens our economy by creating jobs, wages and tax revenue. HELPSY employs 270 people, all of whom are paid living wages, and collects 15,000 tons of textiles every year…amounting to 18 jobs for every 1000 tons of textiles collected.  HELPSY is the only clothing collection company that is a Certified B Corp.

Over the past year, HELPSY has worked with 113 municipal recycling departments across the East Coast and collected approximately 1.7 million pounds of textiles from those collaborations. Through a combination of clothing drives, home pickups, thrift store partnerships and clothing drop off bins located in 10 states, HELPSY diverts nearly 30 million pounds of textiles from landfills every year. 

For additional information about HELPSY or to join in our environmental preservation efforts, contact info@helpsy.co.