Bostonians no longer have to throw out those worn out towels and sneakers with holes in them

Hopefully people who have been donating soiled/torn textiles in existing boxes because they feel bad just trashing them will now use this as an appropriate option.

Thanks for noticing our new clothing collection boxes! We'd love to answer your questions about them and us; hit us at [email protected]. You can find a bin at http://www.helpsy.co/find-a-bin
Helpsy is a Certified B Corp, meaning we're a for-profit company legally obligated to also prioritize our mission of keeping clothes out of the trash and of creating jobs and honorable wages.
Our partnership with the City of Boston creates extremely demanding but well-paying jobs, and we're hiring in Medford right now.
Please keep in mind that everything you put in our bins gets touched by and potentially benefits many people.
First, we pay our bin hosts, including more than 100 Boston and New Hampshire schools and charities, for every bag we collect. That added up to more than $200,000 over the past 12 months, and is in addition to waste disposal fees our host communities avoid and the money we pay our landlord and our local vendors.
Second, our drivers touch (and are paid for) every bag. There are good and bad people in the world, and fortunately we don't get much poo. Please only give us dry clothes and shoes, and securely tie them in waterproof bags.
Third, our warehouse crew disposes of wet clothes and other trash and then packages the bags for shipment. Right now we sell everything wholesale and primarily to sorting companies in the USA, so in addition to our hiring your clothes support another 20 American jobs. We're looking to bring those jobs to Boston over the coming year.
Next, our customers' customers display the sorted clothes in their stores, which in our case are in North and South America; this process creates an even greater number of jobs.
Finally, retail shoppers are given a choice of better and cheaper clothes. These clothes displace Chinese imports, not some fictional local industry. By doing so, the clothes you contribute fight climate change by reducing the overproduction of new clothes. On average, every pound of usable clothes you drop in our boxes will prevent more than 30 pounds of CO2 emissions net of our collection activities.
Only 15% of Americans' clothes end up in clothing boxes or thrift stores. If that number was 100%, we'd keep another 30 billion pounds of clothes out of the trash, create another half-million jobs in collection and sorting, and meaningfully reduce the emissions for which we as consumers are responsible.
Thanks for asking about our program. If you want to host a bin or a clothing drive, want to work for us, or see a mess at a bin, please email [email protected]. We run 24/7 and will respond as soon as possible. Oh, and if you're not already buying used at our partners Boomerangs, Global Thrift, Sister Thrift, Wonderland, or OUTfitters, get out there and support your community!

If you take walks every trash pickup day,or walk the neighborhoods as I do daily with my dog , you will see how many people not only recycle in an ineffectual manner, but throw away enormous amounts of perfectly wearable clothing and shoes, blankets etc,etc.... i would estimate that more than half of the homes throw it in the trash rather than call one of the organizations that pick up donations. This doesn’t include all the huge piles on trash day of entire contents of apartments or houses where people have moved.
I have been “rescuing “ bags of clothing and other textiles for years. I either carry it home or go back with the car for it. I then sort it and donate it appropriately The donation boxes around Boston are a dream come true! A

The Red Cross Bins at the Back Bay Train Station attracts all kinds of crime. The homeless have vandalized the hinges of one container and they jump into the bins, congregate for hours at the bins, become aggressive and cause all kinds of disturbances in the daytime and in the middle of the night. The owner of the bins Windward trading, a second hand clothing company, has an agreement to empty these bins daily, but they are not emptied out regularly. If Windward and the Back Bay management want to give out donations, then it should be done in an organized way, so that it does not cause neighborhood disturbances and crime. There have been a lot of complaints and requests to have the Red Cross bins at the Back Bay Train Station removed, as it has become dangerous in that area. We can not even enjoy the green space at the train station and this is from the City of Boston Code Enforcement https://bit.ly/3kEdM8N.

So what is the incentive in having these containers at the Back Bay Train Station?