With the holidays coming up, you'll likely be cleaning out your home for visitors and guests, but there are better places to send your used items than the landfill.
Trashie, the innovative startup, has a merry and bright program that'll help you recycle your old items and earn rewards in the process through their Trashie Take Back Bag.
How does the Trashie Take Back Bag work?
Trashie's Take Back Bag is really straightforward: just visit their website and order one of their brightly colored bags for $20. Then, you fill the bag with up to 15 pounds of clothes, bags, shoes, and other fabric-based materials. After that, just ship it back to Trashie's recycling center for free, using a QR code to generate a USPS shipping label.
For every bag you send in, you earn rewards, up to $30 per bag, toward all sorts of goodies, such as restaurants, meal delivery services, shops, movie theaters, and more fun activities — perfect for the holidays.
Why should I do the Trashie Take Back program?
Instagrammer Ankita Jain (@ankitajain171) demonstrated how easy Trashie's program is and why it's the perfect option for any holiday clean-out.
"Every year, as Diwali approaches, we dive into deep cleaning, and it's time to part with my kids' old clothes to make space for new ones," Jain wrote in the caption of her video, adding that she's "thrilled" the items won't end up in a landfill.
And while the rewards are a nice bonus, especially around the holidays, the environmental benefits are an even bigger long-term reward.
As Jain mentioned, keeping clothes out of landfills is important. Boston University reports that in the United States, people throw away 34 billion pounds of textiles every year. While sitting in landfills, those clothes take up space and generate greenhouse gases, like methane, which is 28 times more potent at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.
Trashie's Take Back Bag program aims to keep 90% of what the company receives out of the trash, with approximately 70% of the items they receive being reused and another 20% recycled into new fibers for things such as pet bedding.
🗣️ Which of these factors would most effectively motivate you to recycle old clothes and electronics?
🔘 Giving me money back 💰
🔘 Letting me trade for new stuff 👕
🔘 Making it as easy as possible ⚡
🔘 Keeping my stuff out of landfills 🗑️
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
People in the comments were impressed with the ease of the system, with one writing: "I have to do this!"
Are there similar programs to Trashie's Take Back Bag?
Lots of companies are getting involved in recycling used clothing and other products to reduce waste.
Retold has a similar program to Trashie, allowing you to buy a bag and send in used clothes for rewards. Poshmark and ThredUp also allow you to earn money on your used clothes that meet certain standards.
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