Mayor Harry Rilling announced Monday the city has officially begun its partnership with HELPSY, offering free at-home pickups of clothing and household textiles to residents. According to a news release provided by the city, HELPSY is the largest clothing collector in the northeast that partners with municipalities to recycle and reuse unwanted clothing and other textiles to provide communities with an environmentally friendly alternative to throwing clothes in the trash.In celebration of Earth Day, the first pickup will be on Saturday, April 23, 2022. Norwalk residents can now visit www.helpsy.co/norwalkct and schedule at-home pickups on future Saturdays.
“Norwalk is thrilled to begin our partnership with HELPSY, an organization with an environmental mission aimed at changing how people recycle their textiles, such as clothes and shoes,” Rilling said in a news release. “Through this partnership, the city will save money, and residents will be able to easily recycle their unwanted textiles to help preserve our environment. Textile waste is one of the fastest-growing waste streams in the nation, and we must do better.”
Norwalk pays $95 to dispose of one ton of garbage and, with HELPSY’s partnership, plans to save the city money, according to city officials.
The average person throws away more than 100 pounds of clothing every year, whereas 95 percent of discarded textiles can be reused or recycled. HELPSY’s services will help Norwalk make a positive environmental impact by recycling or reusing clothing that will help save natural resources such as water and fuel, according to city officials.
“HELPSY’s environmental mission is to radically change the way people think about clothing reuse and recycling,” HELPSY CEO Dan Green said in a news release. “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.”
HELPSY requires that clothing submitted be clean, dry, bagged, and left outside before 7 a.m. on the morning of pickup. HELPSY accepts clean, dry and bagged clothing and fashion accessories (gently used, stained, worn or torn), including dresses, shirts, pants, suits, coats, gloves, hats, belts, ties, scarves, wallets, purses, backpacks, totes, shoes, towels, bedding, costumes, curtains, placements, tablecloths and throw rugs.
Items that won’t be accepted include breakable houseware or glass, electronics, furniture, building material, scrap metal, appliances, mattresses, encyclopedia sets, phone books or magazines.
Additional information can be found at www.norwalkct.org.