Recycling effort helps reduce waste and clutter while raising funds for school Albrecht volunteers organize textile drives

PHOTO SUBMITTED The Independent-Register
Finley Riese, left, and Easton Riese help load and unload items donated for a textile drive to benefit Al-brecht Elementary School, where they are students and their mom, Lori Riese, is a third-grade teacher.

By Margaret Plevak, Correspondent

Albrecht Elementary School has found a fundraising project that not only makes people feel good as they tackle spring cleaning, but does some good environmentally too.

For the last several years, Albrecht has held textile drives, asking people to donate old and used clothing, and items like bed linens, curtains and paired shoes. The school gets paid by the pound for the fabric items by Chicago Textile Recycling, which sorts the items. Still useable clothing is distributed to communities in need, both locally and around the world. Donated clothing that can’t be worn again is recycled into janitorial and industrial wiping rags and other supplies by Wipeco Inc., the parent company of CTR. Some clothing and textiles that can’t be used for wipes are processed back into fibers that can be recycled into paper, yarn, insulation, carpet padding and other resources.

A list of both acceptable and unacceptable items for donation is posted on the school’s Facebook page, as well as CTR’s website. During the drives, donors are asked to put all their items in plastic shopping or trash bags that can be tied shut, and take them to a Center Avenue storage location. They can also arrange for a porch pickup of donations by volunteers.

Pick up the Mar. 31st print edition for full story…..