Recovering Textiles: NYC & HW
So this morning I went with Erica to the New York Department of Sanitation for a meeting about a possible partnership in what they are calling the “Textile recovery program”
I had no idea what to expect, I have thought we’d be the only ones there but we arrived 20 minutes early and there was already more than 15 people there. Not a lot but all the big players were there, both goodwill and salvation army had their entourages, the dude from the salvation army even came in full garb.
The meeting was short, they gave an overview of the proposal and then opened it up for questions. The director was rather snarking, often responding to questions with “You should really have read the packet” But after some back and forth I think we walked away with a pretty clear idea of what was entailed in the program.
The city is looking for a dedicated non-profit partner to service a series of donation bins put in apartment building throughout the city. The program would start with about 50 locations which they hope to grow rapidly year after year. They get calls when bins are full and dispatch our guys to pick up.
The process of deciding who the city will partner with is based on a “Bid” put in by the non-profit. The bid isnt an amount you pay the city, its a certain dollar amount that we would have to set aside per ton of clothing we collect. That money is ours to keep but we can only spend it on “hard” assets to support and expand the program. They are saying the amount of the bid is the only factor that matters and that the highest bid from all the qualifying organizations wins the contract which is for as little as ten years and as much as 25 years.
Whew.. so we’re talking about a lot of clothing here, a lot of man power, and potentially a lot of money. Not to mention all the promotion we get from this program. A direct relationship with the city and increasing our donations dropoff locations 500% overnight.
But what exactly will come out of these bins, we get to design them and help decide where they go so hopefully that helps control what kinds of stuff ends up in them, but is anyone going to drop their gucci handbag in a “bin” no matter how nice it looks?
Its tough to say, in the right locations these could be a gold mine…
in the wrong ones you got nothing but a dead baby bin.
What do you think we should do?
