Locals look for clothing at the DDH Hope Foundation Hoodies for the Homeless event Satuday, December 1, 2018, in Norwalk, Conn.

NORWALK — A newly approved city program will allow residents to recycle unwearable clothes without leaving home.

Under the program, approved Tuesday by the Common Council’s Public Works Committee, residents can schedule a pickup time for their unwanted textiles and drop them, in a bag or box, by the curb to be taken away and recycled.

“Pertains to old clothing, shoes, belts, handbags and those types of products that would normally end up in the waste stream of garbage, or maybe you might be fortunate enough to give it away to the Salvation Army or those in need,” Chief of Operations and Public Works Anthony Carr said.

Currently, Norwalk has drop-off bins across the city where residents can deposit bags of clothes to be recycled. The bins, operated by the company USAgain, are emptied weekly, Carr said.

The new program, called Helpsy, is currently in use in Stamford, Helpsy representative Lisa Sciannella said. Norwalk will be the second Connecticut municipality to work with the company, but 10 municipalities in Massachusetts, including Cambridge and Boston, have Helpsy services.

Helpsy comes at no cost to the city; rather, the company will pay Norwalk based on how many pounds of textiles are picked up each month. The city receives 2 cents for each pound of textiles picked up, for a total of $40 for each ton, Sciannella said.

As the city doesn’t pay for the textile company’s services, Helpsy makes money through selling online the clothes sent in that are salvageable, Sciannella said.

“We resell what we can. We get some nice things that still have tags,” Sciannella said. “We have a sorting facility. They (clothes) are photographed and sold online to thrift stores. That’s mostly how we make money.”

To start, the program will select one day each week to make home pickups around Norwalk, with a goal of 35 to 40 pickups each time.

“We would start with one day a week and monitor if slots are filling quickly, then add a second day or second driver on the same day,” Sciannella said. “We want programs to be as convenient as possible for residents but it’s not convenient if all the slots are full and they have to wait two weeks.”

While plastic bags are recommended for curbside textile pickup, it isn’t required, Sciannella said. Helpsy encourages customers to reuse bags, boxes or containers they already have instead of purchasing more plastic.

“Plastic is what will keep it dry, that’s our goal, but we have people who put things in Amazon boxes or paper bags,” Sciannella said.

Once the contract with Helpsy is formalized, the program will take four to six weeks to set up, to account for mapping out a pickup route and getting the word out about the program, Sciannella said.

When the program begins, residents fill out an online form selecting a date and time for pickup, label the bag or container for Helpsy workers and place the items by the curb on the selected date.

I graduated with my master's in journalism from Columbia University in 2020. I received a bachelor's in journalism and English from the University of Connecticut in 2019. Before working for Hearst Connecticut Media Group I worked at the Journal Inquirer in Manchester, covering the towns of Enfield and Windsor. I have previously worked at the Hartford Courant, the Norwich Bulletin and the Republican-American. I love all things cats and Disney.