Here at GreenEarth Cleaning, we’ve long championed that every day be celebrated like it’s Earth Day. So it’s only fitting that when the planet-loving holiday does officially roll around, we make a pretty big to-do about it.
In 2019, we kicked off our inaugural Earth Day Clothes Drive to commemorate GreenEarth’s 20 years in business. A total of 140 U.S. affiliated retail locations—from Connecticut to Colorado to California—opted into the effort for the month of April and racked up a combined donation amount of more than 20,000 pounds, which benefitted Big Brothers Big Sisters as well as other regional nonprofits. At our headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, we partnered with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kansas City and local taproom Bier Station for a one-day clothes drive event that diverted over 2,000 pounds of clothing from the landfill.
Textile waste has and continues to be a pressing issue across the globe. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that it occupies nearly 5% of all landfill space. However, the EPA also reports that 95% of all textiles have the potential to be reused or recycled—yet the current rate is only 15%. Through our Earth Day Clothes Drive, we hope to bring awareness to this disparity and initiate change, starting with our very own Network and their customers.
We had planned to continue our clothes drive in 2020, but we could not in good conscience move forward with the event during such an unprecedented time. Although, we didn’t let that stop our sustainability mission entirely. Over the past year, we’ve still collected clothes at our home office in hopes of accumulating an especially large contribution for 2021. Denim brand Lee has helped us with that effort by already making a sizeable donation to the cause.
We’re inviting all GreenEarth Members to join us once again in reducing textile waste and make an impact within the communities they serve. Clothes will be collected at participating Affiliate store locations, with donations to charities of choice happening on or right around April 22. For those interested in learning more about the 2021 GreenEarth Cleaning Earth Day Clothes Drive, please contact affiliatesupport@greenearthcleaning.com.