Medford Partners With Helpsy To Recycle Unwanted Clothing

MEDFORD, MA — The City of Medford has partnered with Helpsy, a textile recycling company, to offer a free and easy home pickup clothing recycling service for the community, Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn said.

As the largest clothing collector in the Northeast, Helpsy 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

“Unwanted or unused clothing should not be ending up in the trash when it instead could be either repurposed or reused,” Lungo-Koehn said in a statement. “With this partnership we’ll not only reduce our waste in the City, but we’ll be able give new life to discarded clothing and textiles.”

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, textile waste is the fastest growing waste stream in the United States, occupying nearly 5 percent of all landfill space, which is why Helpsy works with cities like Medford to give clothing the longest life possible.

“Helpsy’s mission is to keep clothes out of the trash,” Dan Green, Co-Founder and CEO of Helpsy, said in a statement. “We are dedicated to changing the way people think about clothing recycling while adhering to the highest level of social and environmental performance.”

Currently, Medford residents can drop-off textile recycling at select public school locations through a program with Bay State Textiles. For more information on textile drop-off locations click here.

Beginning September 3, pickups in Medford will take place weekly on Saturdays between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. In order to recycle clean, bagged clothing, residents can sign up at www.helpsy.co/medfordma or call 1-800-244-6350.

For more information about Medford’s Recycling Programs and Helpsy’s municipal partnerships, contact the city’s Department of Public Works at 781-393-2402.