March 28, 2024

For-profit recycling program could hurt local nonprofits

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Cranston, RI – Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rhode Island (BBBSRI) uses their fleet of iconic trucks to collect the community’s donations of bagged clothing and boxed household items to fund their local youth mentoring programs. The free and convenient curbside pick-up can be accessed by vising DonateRI.org or by calling 401.921.2434 and speaking to a representative at BBBSRI’s locally staffed Donation Center Headquarters in Cranston. Along with 6 trucks offering free curbside pick-up, BBBSRI also maintains over 100 clothing donation bins and 4 drop off centers, which provide a lifeblood to the agency and over 30 other local non-profits. These include local schools, churches, veteran's organizations, and 8 YMCAs throughout the state.

According to BBBSRI Executive Director, Katje Afonseca, BBBS has been operating their donation center since 1997 when then, Executive Director, Bonny Sevelin embarked on a contract with Savers to provide consistent, sustainable funding for their local youth mentoring programs in return for the collection of gently used clothing and small household items. Each year, BBBSRI diverts between 6.5 and 8.4 million pounds of clothing and household items from Rhode Island landfills. Through this process, BBBS creates a funding stream for its mentoring programs, which have supported thousands of youth in Rhode Island.
“We have offered free home pickups to Rhode Island residents for more than 20 years.” said Afonseca. “It is surprising to see for-profit companies both in our state and from out of state who are just beginning to offer home picks ups state that this is a new service to Rhode Islanders.”

BBBSRI has begun to see a slight decline in donations and wonders if this is due to for-profit and out of state, curbside pickup services that have thrown their hat into the ring of “textile recycling”.

The BBBSRI Donation Center understands that customer service, and ease of use, is a top priority in the cloth collection business. That’s why BBBSRI not only offers free home pickups, but has more than 100 clothing collection bins throughout the state as well 4 drop off centers. BBBSRI was named Best ‘Nonprofit’ Place to Work in 2019 by Providence Business News. “Not only do we offer a convenient way to donate used clothing and household items, we value the 50+ employees who work at BBBSRI and know that by making this a great place to work, our drivers, attendants and all team members will provide top notch service to our customers.”

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more than 84 percent of old clothes, shoes, belts, handbags and textile items end up in a landfill or an incinerator. On average, that adds up to about 85 pounds of textile items per person each year. As a result, textiles make up more than 6 percent of all the residential and municipal trash in the country.

BBBSRI shares profits from its donation bins with other nonprofits, said Afonseca. There are a number of other bins from for-profit organizations around, and no one is saying those companies shouldn’t also be allowed to collect items, she said, but it’s important to be on equal footing.

BBBSRI partners with Savers, selling items to the secondhand store and using the money to cover the overhead of running the nonprofit. That means direct monetary donations go directly to the organization’s work of providing mentors to the youth of Rhode Island. For more information or to find a drop of location near you, visit www.BigsRI.org

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