Boston to Reduce Waste with Textile Recycling Drop Boxes

Boston’s mission is to become a zero-waste city. 

In collaboration with Helpsy, a textile collection company, the City of Boston now offers residents a sustainable option for disposing old clothes. The initiative that began in 2019, offers ten textile recycling drop boxes across various Boston neighborhoods as well as recycling events. The city hopes to institute a curbside pickup system in Spring 2021.

Helpsy removes all of the textiles from the boxes and brings it to their dispatch center in Medford, CT where they are sorted. Approximately half the clothes are sold wholesale to American companies, a quarter of the materials are cut into wiping rags and the “lowest-value” quarter of textiles are ground down into carpet padding.

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