Whitehorse Daily Star

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Photo by Vince Fedoroff

BANKING ON SUCCESS – Whitehorse city councillor Betty Irwin (far left) cuts the ribbon Thursday afternoon at the new Clothing Bank at the Raven Recycling Society facilities off Industrial Road. Nicholas O’Carroll, the vice-president of the Whitehorse Firefighters Charitable Society, holds the ribbon. Beside him, left to right, are the society’s Tara Downey; Terry Hunt, with the Surrey Firefighters Charitable Society; and Danny Lewis of Raven Recycling.

Clothing to be banked, baled and shipped out

Bags of old clothes accumulating in basements, closets and crawl spaces around the city now have a place to donate them.

By Stephanie Waddell on August 18, 2017

Bags of old clothes accumulating in basements, closets and crawl spaces around the city now have a place to donate them.

On Thursday afternoon, officials with the Whitehorse Firefighters Charitable Society and Raven Recycling Society gathered inside Raven’s former free store in Marwell.

They announced a partnership between their organizations as well as trucking company Pacific Northwest, which has given the groups a good deal on shipping.

Inside the former free store, five large red Clothing Bank bins are available for residents to drop off any washed clothing they want to donate.

Raven will collect and bail the textiles that will eventually be shipped to Vancouver by Pacific Northwest, with Odyssey International set to purchase the baled clothing.

The clothes will then be recycled, some being used to make rags, others making their way to used clothing stores.

Like any commodity, prices on textiles can fluctuate.

Right now, textiles sell for about 20 cents per pound. Between 25 and 35 bails of textiles could fill a truck, translating to approximately 40,000 lbs., said Danny Lewis, Raven’s education co-ordinator.

Raven and the firefighters’ organization are set to split the money coming from the sale of the textiles.

The cash will go back into the costs of the program. Any net revenue will go into the annual Share the Spirit program the firefighters’ group operates.

The Share the Spirit campaign provides Christmas hampers to families in need. The firefighters took over the annual campaign last year.

Nicolas O’Carroll, the vice-president of the firefighters society, said the group first began working on the concept of the clothing bank last January.

Members of the group had attended a conference in B.C. and learned of the clothing bank started by the Surrey Firefighters Charitable Society.

At that time, Raven’s free store and the Salvation Army Thrift Store were still operating.

They were providing options for residents looking to donate used goods, including clothing. The city’s free store at the landfill was already closed at that point.

The free store and thrift store eventually also closed, largely due to an overabundance of items – many unusable – being dropped off.

It became difficult for the organizations’ staff to manage the amount of used items coming in, with many of the goods eventually ending up at the landfill.

There are a number of consignment stores, a flea market and other ways of selling used goods around the city. However, there continue to be problems with illegal dumping.

The Humane Society of Yukon, for example, has been faced with steep tipping fees at the landfill due to many unusable items being left overnight at its animal shelter in Marwell. In some cases, signs have been posted at businesses advising that it does not accept donations of used goods.

Even when the free and thrift stores were open, there were a lot of textiles ending up in the landfill, it was noted.

“We know this is a need,” said Lewis.

Prior to deciding to go ahead, O’Carroll noted the group contacted consignment shops and other community organizations which accept donations of used clothes.

They learned that they too are dealing with an overabundance of textiles coming in, and it was agreed the clothing bank would be beneficial for Whitehorse.

As efforts to set up the program went on, the Whitehorse group continued working with the firefighters’ group in Surrey, learning from their experience.

Terry Hunt of the Surrey group noted Thursday that both the clothing bank and the group’s thrift store have allowed them to put some money back into community work there.

“I believe it can work here too,” he said.

Raven staff will be monitoring the clothing bank area to help ensure residents aren’t dumping soiled clothing and other non-textile goods in the bins.

If the project proves successful, more bins could eventually be added in other locations.

Comments (6)

Up 16 Down 10

Nile on Aug 22, 2017 at 7:08 pm

How much $ did raven make off of this? They don't do anything for free.

Up 44 Down 14

ProScience Greenie on Aug 21, 2017 at 10:01 am

The greenest to do would be to eliminate CoW dump tipping fees and bring back a free store there and let Yukon people reuse this stuff. It would also be the simplest thing to do.

Up 17 Down 13

D.W. on Aug 19, 2017 at 10:59 am

1) The correct word is 'bale' not 'bail', see: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/bale
2) I have great concern with these bales being sold to a textile exporter, as the developing world has begun to push back against the anti-trade practice of dumping of textiles into their markets, as it discourages the local textile industry. Were these concerns raised or otherwise acknowledged? The website of Odyssey International Exporters makes it clear that they export these bales to South America, Africa and Asia.

See any of the following links for more info:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/12/business/second-hand-clothes-africa/index.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/06/second-hand-clothing-donations-kenya

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35706427

Moderator: Thanks, bailed has been changed to baled.

Up 27 Down 1

WFCS on Aug 18, 2017 at 8:16 pm

Hi Politico, That is an excellent point...(no pun intended) and we appreciate your concern for the health and safety of those working with us...we share it as well
With all waste and recycling products, there is a risk it may have a multitude of dangers and threats, including biological contaminated sharps. In this respect, we hope to both educate the users, that the clothes should be washed and bagged first, and we rely on the professional folks at Raven Recycling who deal with copious amounts of material throughout the day wearing proper PPE and always being aware there could be hidden dangers.
Substance abuse is an issue in almost all areas of our society. We have found sharps in buildings, playgrounds, schools, and dumpsters. We feel it is better to educate as many folks involved in those areas, to be safe as possible, rather than shutting down areas where hazards are found. Having said all that, to assume our program in co-operation with Raven and PNW will not have its own challenges is naive, but we feel strongly that moving forward with a strategy to deal with certain types of dangers is our best way forward, rather than abandoning the clothing to fall continuously into a landfill.

Up 33 Down 12

Curious Citizen on Aug 18, 2017 at 4:56 pm

This is good news in that the used clothes will be recycled and not put in the dump, but it is not good news for needy people here in the Yukon as they no longer have a source of inexpensive used clothing (Sequels is great but aims for the high-end clothing). Whitehorse needs a thrift store - for clothes, shoes, bedding, dishes, etc. Losing the free-store at the dump and the Sally Ann's thrift store means there is no place for people who have a need and no income to obtain warm clothes, etc.

The City spends a ton of our tax money on the landfill - perhaps they could re-open the free-store with reduced hours and a person there to monitor what comes in?? Think of how much would stay out of the landfill cells if they did that!

Up 28 Down 9

Politico on Aug 18, 2017 at 4:29 pm

But what about the needle concern which closed the other collection sites or are they not an issue here?

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