Redesigned clothing donation bins have been delivered to all Richmond fire halls to help support local charities.
In addition to payroll donations and shaking the boot, the Richmond fire fighters' union wanted to work with a textile recycling company to divert items from the landfill and add more funds to their charitable society that supports the Richmond Food Bank, Richmond Hospital Foundation, Muscular Dystrophy and several other local charities.
Colin Medhurst, chair of the PR committee for the Richmond Fire Fighters, IAFF loc. 1286, said bins can be a challenge if they’re not well managed.
People tend to dump household items in front of them, sometimes in the rain which spoils them.
The donations will be collected by Trans-Continental, a Surrey-based company, that then sorts them and repurposes them.
“Their reputation is amazing, they really take care of their bins… They have a great network of drivers and that’s what’s key to a company like that,” said Medhurst.
All textiles can be donated – not just “gently used” clothing.
Even clothes that are too old to be worn can be repurposed or remilled into new items.
Trans-Continental turns 20 per cent of their collected textiles into wiper rags, 45 per cent is recycled and sent to mills in Europe and Asia to make new items – like insulation in the auto industry - and 35 per cent is exported as clothes to be worn in other countries.
The bins are also redesigned for safety. Two years ago, donation bins were removed from public property after several people around the Lower Mainland died getting stuck in them looking for items.
The bins placed at the Richmond fire halls have a rotor mechanism so it’s not possible to pull anything out after items are dropped in, albeit, the opening is smaller than drop chutes.
Gagan Klair with Trans-Continental said if anyone dumps items in front of the bins, the company will come and collect and dispose of them, saying “we take the onus.”
The money raised from the bins will go toward the Richmond fire fighters’ union’s charitable wing.
Fire fighters donate to Richmond Hospital Foundation
But the bins aren’t the only way fire fighters are raising money.
For three years, every Richmond fire fighter was donating $10 per paycheque to raise money for the Richmond Hospital Foundation.
This came to a total of $250,000 that went toward the soon-to-be announced rebuild of the acute care tower and expanded services at Richmond Hospital.
The foundation recently announced it has reached its $50 million fundraising goal.
However, the fire fighters recently voted to continue with the payroll donations to support other charities including the Richmond Food Bank, Muscular Dystrophy, the Richmond Food Bank as well as other local organizations, Medhurst explained.
“When we put out the boot, people very generously donate to us,” he said. “That’s why the payroll deduction is our way of (saying), the community has always opened up their wallet to us, what we want to do is match it with our own payroll deductions.”
