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Planet Aid expands into Fort Scott and Nevada
Those big yellow bins seen of late along the well-traveled streets of Fort Scott and Nevada are an effort to benefit organizations worldwide.
Planet Aid was founded in 1997 in Holliston, Mass., springing up along the East Coast and in California before launching in the Midwest. It began in Kansas City in 2004, Community Relations Specialist Alex Medina said.
It partners with several national and international organizations to help protect the environment and support sustainable development in impoverished communities around the world, its website said.
Pittsburg was the first Southeast Kansas city to get the bins, which provide a place to drop off clothing and shoes.
"The average American discards 68 pounds of clothes ... a year, so for a city the size of Fort Scott, that's potentially half a million pounds of clothes. It's just an option and we find we provide a great convenience," Medina said.
"We serve as a reminder that it is easy to donate," he added, noting the bins are placed in high-traffic areas of towns. Bins are not placed in residential areas, unless there is a church nearby that requests one. Bins are also not placed in historic areas or at historic sites.
"We do clothes and shoes. That is our focus," Medina said. "If we get donations like feminine hygiene products or adult diapers," they are given to the appropriate charities. Any contributed food is given to pantries.
Throwing away clothes, he said, has a huge environmental impact because the garments wind up in landfills taking up space. As they disintegrate, the clothes let off carbon dioxide which is a greenhouse gas that has been linked to global warming, he said.
"Seventy-percent of the world's population wears second-hand clothes and we help provide those," Medina said.
After the clothes and shoes are collected, they are taken to Kansas City, bailed and sent to a distributor, Garson and Shaw, an Atlanta, Ga.-based firm that provides second-hand clothing to retailers, wholesalers and grading companies worldwide, its website said. Even raggedy clothes can be used -- for insulation for example.
With the funds it gets from turning in the clothing, Planet Aid contributes to HIV education, vocational training for orphaned and abandoned children, teacher training and farmers' clubs, which let farmers share ideas.
Planet Aid recently received a $20 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to help farmers go from subsistence farming to a cash crop.
Items are collected from the bins at least once a week. If there is overflow, Medina said the site host has the option to call Planet Aid and it will be picked up, usually within 24 hours.
Planet Aid has been in contact with The Beacon, a local community assistance agency that helps Bourbon County residents. Planet Aid would like to put a decal on the bins saying a portion of the proceeds from the clothes will go to the agency, but Beacon Director Bob Eckles said he has not taken the idea to his board yet.
"I would probably encourage them to allow that," he said.
"I am supportive of the effort. We frankly have more clothes than we can distribute. We have been distributing a sizable percentage of the clothing we receive to Pittsburg Southeast Kansas Recycling," which sends them off to other countries in much the same way as Planet Aid, Eckles said.