In a world where trends change with the weather, you may search for worthy places for recycling clothes “near me.” When you donate gently used clothing to OppShop, you provide the community with the opportunity to buy for their families at low prices and help support the mission of Opportunity House, the premier homeless shelter in the Pennsylvania area.
The Importance of the Mission of Opportunity House
Opportunity House provides the homeless population of Berks County with a range of services, starting with emergency shelter. We provide emergency housing for an average of 500 people each year. Along with a safe place to rest, clients receive three meals and a snack each day, shower and laundry facilities, and case management to help address the issues that keep them from securing and maintaining housing.
We also offer transitional and permanent housing units, early childhood education, and a reuse/recycle program featuring a retail thrift shop and warehouse for recycling.
Homelessness affects society as a whole, and too many of us are just a few unlucky events away from losing housing. Whether you help Opportunity House with donations of time, money, or items, you’ll find us worthy of your attention.
How Recycling Clothing Helps Opportunity House
Opportunity House operates our retail thrift store, OppShop. The profits from OppShop go toward the programs and services the shelter provides. The retail store, located on 5th Street Highway in Reading, PA, also provides shelter clients with a way to select their own clothing through a voucher program.
Donations to OppShop should be in good condition as we need to resell the items. We accept men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing; CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray discs in their original cases; kitchen items, including utensils, cutlery, dishware, and cookware; holiday decor, costumes, and gifts; furniture; jewelry; purses/bags; shoes; flatscreen TVs; and toys.
Items we cannot accept for donation include chemicals; non-flatscreen TVs, stereo systems, copy machines, or computer monitors; building supplies; infant/toddler furniture; tires; and office chairs with missing pieces.
Any inventory that goes unsold will be recycled through our warehouse. Several recycling companies help us recycle an estimated 700,000 pounds of merchandise each year.
Depositing OppShop Donations
Recycling in a way that also helps the less fortunate sounds like a great option, right? We understand that we must also make it convenient. We provide donation bins throughout the community, a drop-off location behind OppShop, and a pickup service for large items like furniture.
When you deposit goods in the bin, remember that large trash bags will not fit, so you should place the clothes, media, and books you’d like to donate in a grocery-size bag to put in the bin. We also ask that you respect the area and leave it clean.
The staff members who help you unload at the drop-off location or pick up the goods at your home can refuse to accept a donation if they deem the goods outdated, soiled, or worn. It will take away from the donation if we pay to dispose of goods rather than display them for sale.
Recycling clothes “near me” has never been easier or more beneficial to the homeless than when you choose to donate your gently used items to Opportunity House’s OppShop.
