Scheduled Pickups, Including Saturdays, Available at www.YonkersNY.gov/Helpsy
Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano today announced the City’s partnership with Helpsy and the Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities, to offer a free and easy home pickup textile recycling service for residents to responsibly dispose of clothes, shoes, towels, rugs, and other textile materials.
“Spring cleaning comes early this year thanks to Yonkers’ partnership with Helpsy and Westchester County,” said Mayor Spano. “Our combined sustainability efforts will prevent unwanted textiles from entering the waste stream and give residents peace of mind knowing that their disposed textiles will be properly recycled.”
Starting today, residents can visit www.yonkersny.gov/helpsy to schedule an appointment for Helpsy to pick up bagged clothes and other textiles placed at the curb. Appointments may also be scheduled using the Recycle Coach app, available to all residents at www.yonkersny.gov/recyclecoach or by downloading the app on a mobile device. Yonkers joins 15 other Westchester County municipalities participating in Helpsy’s free textile pickup service under the Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities.
“As the largest municipal recycler in Westchester, Yonkers DPW is proud to offer residents convenient ways to recycle a wide range of items, from paper and plastics to electronics, paint, and organics,” said Yonkers DPW Commissioner Thomas Meier. “Diverting textiles from our solid waste stream through this new program is yet another impactful way to reduce waste while achieving taxpayer savings.”
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, textile waste is the fastest-growing type of trash in the country. Americans throw 85% of their clothes in the trash. Lowering the amount of textiles in the solid waste stream not only supports the City’s zero waste climate action goals, but will also help further reduce City spending on solid waste disposal.
Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins said, “Westchester County is proud to partner with the City of Yonkers and Helpsy, to provide our residents with an easier way to dispose of unwanted clothing, rugs and other textiles. The benefit of this partnership is two-fold, and will allow us to more easily divert unwanted textiles from our waste stream, while saving taxpayer dollars. I want to thank Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano for his leadership in ensuring all items will be recycled in the proper manner.”
As a clothing collection company and a certified B corporation with an environmental mission to extend the useful life of clothing, Helpsy partners with municipalities and organizations across 10 states to collect unwanted clothing. Helpsy operates 1,200 clothing collection points and provides free curbside service to millions of Americans. Currently they collect an item of clothing every second.
“Helpsy’s mission is to keep clothes out of the trash,” says 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.”
In 2023 alone, Helpsy diverted nearly 30 million pounds of textiles from the waste stream through a combination of clothing drives, home pickups, thrift store partners and clothing bins. Helpsy can partner with organizations to divert waste from garbage while fundraising for their missions.
