Helpsy Clothing Bins in Warwick
The Town of Warwick has teamed up with Helpsy, inviting and encouraging the collection of used clothing and textiles considered beyond repair.
Our partnership has expanded to include the Village of Florida and the Town of Warwick. See the sidebar for exact locations, what’s accepted, and to track our progress.
Helpsy is a unique for-profit organization that recycles and repurposes all kinds of used – yet clean – textiles. While organizations with collection boxes around town, such as Goodwill and Salvation Army, will take your wearable clothing for direct donations, Helpsy takes all kinds of clean textiles that thrift shops or other clothing donations do not accept. Items suitable for collection include: all clothing, linens, curtains/drapery, footwear, and accessories, even old luggage, stuffed animals and so much more. In any condition, so long as the donations are clean, dry and bagged!
Special Incentive
The Helpsy business model allows municipalities to be paid ($.07/per pound) for the clothing/textile collections received. These funds will be used to keep our villages and the town greener and blooming!
Did you know:
Discarded textiles take up nearly 10% of all landfill space, AND they release toxic chemicals into the atmosphere while breaking down.
Here in the U.S., we throw away 36 BILLION pounds of textiles each year.
And yet, 95% of that unwanted clothing can be reused, repurposed, or recycled.
Helpsy offers an alternative. Their goal is to keep all textiles out of landfills – and find new uses for those gently used and worn-out items. And they are really good at this. Through a combination of recycling bins, clothing drives, thrift store partners, etc., Helpsy has diverted 30 million pounds of textiles from landfills every year! We need to do our part to help them continue their efforts and breathe cleaner air!
The Helpsy Model
Helpsy® is a certified B Corp and Public Benefit Corporation with a mission to keep clothes out of the trash and to create honorable work at a living wage.
Want to learn more about Helpsy? Go to helpsy.com.
How it works:
Once collected, Helpsy employees sort through all donations and determine what, if any, may be resold, what needs repairing, and which textiles could be used for making other things, such as industrial rags, stuffing or insulation. Sustainable Warwick is working with Helpsy to ensure a smooth collection process here in town.
As a for-profit business, Helpsy works with municipalities and in return offers $50 for each filled bin. If this one, centrally-placed bin does well, more bins may be considered for additional sites in town. Funds collected could be put towards further beautifying this town that we so love.
Helpsy does not accept: glass or breakable items, furniture, electronics, books or building supplies, nor wet or stained clothing.
Warwick’s Helpsy collection bin is located to the left of Warwick Town Hall, near the Police Station.
Florida’s Helpsy collection bin is located in the lot behind Florida Village Hall and the Police Station.
To date we have collected approximately:
13,723 pounds
Thank you for adding your used clothing and other items to the Helpsy bin and keeping all that out of the landfill!