Our Mission &
Impact
“THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AWAY.
WHEN WE THROW ANYTHING AWAY IT MUST GO SOMEWHERE."— ANNIE LEONARD, CREATOR OF 'THE STORY OF STUFF'
Hi! We’re Helpsy.
As a certified B Corp and Public Benefit Corporation, Helpsy's mission is to keep clothing out of the trash, provide honorable work, and earn growing profits.
Helpsy collects, sorts, and trades secondhand clothes and shoes. In 2023 alone, our team collected over 31 million lbs of clothes, shoes, and other items.
The impact of our efforts speaks volumes:
Assuming that for every 2 garments we collect, we are able to offset 1 new garment; we saved nearly 6 billion gallons of water and nearly 207 million pounds of CO2 emissions from new clothing creation.
Paid more than $500,000 to charities and municipalities for bin placements, clothing drives, purchased materials, and as donations.
Saved municipalities more than $1.3 million in waste disposal tipping fees.
What Happens to the Clothes We Collect?
Helpsy’s mission is to keep clothing out of the trash. 95% of what we collect can be reused or recycled. Clothing is sold primarily for reuse where higher grades are resold to thrift stores in North America and other secondhand markets around the world. The lower grades can be turned into rags for industrial use or stuffing and insulation. Clothing reuse is a big deal and reduces the enormous environmental burden of the second most polluting industry in the world.
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Kept 31 million lbs of clothes, shoes, and other items from the waste stream.
That’s 100 items of clothing every minute.
Assuming that for every 2 garments we collect, we are able to offset 1 new garment; we saved nearly 6 billion gallons of water and nearly 207 million pounds of CO2 emissions from new clothing creation.
The only Certified B Corp and now Public Benefit Corporation in clothing collection.
Helped dozens of brands become more sustainable by responsibly reusing their unwanted goods, damages, and returns.
Furthered our waste diversion goals to include plastic film and e-waste.
Installed solar panels to another Helpsy warehouse.
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Paid more than $500,000 to charities and municipalities for bin placements, clothing drives, purchased materials, and donations.
Expanded our municipal partnerships and are now the official textile recycling partner of 48 municipalities.
Hosted 351 community clothing drives.
Safely performed 12,000 touchless home pickups.
Helped municipalities reach diversion goals and provided tonnage reports, detailing the weights we collect.
Welcomed over 300 guests to warehouse tours and other events to raise awareness about the importance of textile reuse.
We provide reuse inventory solutions to over 200 brick and mortar thrift stores.
Used our collection, sorting and logistics operations to donate over 5,000 coats to local organizations this winter.
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We pride ourselves on paying the best wages in the industry and that over 72% of our workforce is diverse and that 37% of senior management is female.
Everyone at Helpsy earns living wages and is a shareholder in the company.
Spent $8 million with local vendors, including bin hosts and thrift stores.
Saved municipalities more than $1.3 million in waste disposal tipping fees.
Helpsy operations support thousands of full-time jobs at Helpsy and our customers.
Let’s work together.
Did you know that the EPA estimates that the average US resident discards over 100 pounds of clothing per year and 85% of it ends up in landfills? At Helpsy, our mission is to keep clothes out of the trash and we want to work with you to further our impact.