Clothing. (Credit: Mary Lynn’s Photos/ Flickr Creative Commons)
Brick Township announced last week that it would partner with a national clothing collection service to organize home pickups of clothing residents wish to donate.
The service is known as Helpsy, whose larger goal is to keep textile items out of landfills in order to help the environment.
Helpsy, which has grown to become the largest clothing collector in the northeastern U.S., partners with municipalities and organizations across 11 states to collect unwanted clothing and other textiles in order to keep clothes out of landfills. In 2021, the company diverted nearly 30 million pounds of textiles from landfills through a combination of clothing drives, home pickups, thrift store partners and clothing receptacles, it said in a statement.
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“Helpsy’s mission is to keep clothes out of the trash,” said Dan Green, Co-Founder and CEO of Helpsy. “We are dedicated to changing the way people think about clothing recycling while adhering to the highest level of social and environmental performance.”
The company said 95 percent of what is collected is reused, upcycled, or recycled. It is first sorted by Helpsy’s partners and divided into grades. The higher grades are resold to thrift stores in North America and other second hand markets around the world. The lower grades get turned into rags for industrial use such as stuffing and insulation.
“We are excited to begin this partnership with Helpsy and I am confident that the residents of Brick Township will support this team effort to keep unwanted textiles from filling our local landfills,” said Mayor Ducey. “In addition to the environmental benefits, reducing the amount of material that we put into landfills saves tax dollars.”
Brick is the 23rd town to partner with Helpsy to provide free home pickup service, and joins Toms River as the second municipality in New Jersey.
Beginning this Friday, Aug. 19, pickups in Brick will take place weekly on Fridays between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. In order to recycle bagged and clean clothing, any resident of the township can sign up at www.helpsy.co/bricknj or call 1-800-244-6350.
For more information about Brick’s Recycling Programs and Helpsy’s municipal partnerships, residents can contact the Brick Townships Department of Public Works at 732-451-4060 ext. 4066 or visit www.helpsy.co.
