As your news feeds have been inundated with the latest information on coronavirus these past few months, Chicago Textile Recycling wanted to share with you where we fit in and what we are doing to “do our part” during this pandemic.

 

Cleaning Out and Donating Textiles

If you follow us on Facebook or Twitter, you have seen our posts about social distancing and sheltering in place being a great time to clean out closets, dressers, shoes, and more…but we have also shared that it is not a great time to take those to resale stores and CTR bins.

 

The reason for this is because we too are attempting to follow state and federal orders for social distancing. What this means for our company is not furthering transmission of coronavirus through donation pick ups at bins, resale stores and other companies that have partnerships with us. There is so much information that is still being learned about the spread of this virus and one of those unknowns is the longevity of life the virus has on clothes, cardboard, plastic and other materials. In order to protect our company employees, we are doing all that we can to keep them healthy and out of overcrowded hospitals.

 

We appreciate each of you as our recyclers helping us as we try to do our part in keeping everyone safe. Feel free to clean out and spring clean, but please set aside your donations in your attic, garage or closets until the country is able to get back on its feet once this pandemic has passed. Most or all resale stores are also closed at this time and not accepting donations, so please keep donatable textiles at home.

 

Our Parent Company Wipeco, Inc

As we have mentioned in previous blogs and posts on social media, Chicago Textile Recycling is under the parent company of Wipeco, Inc., which supplies cloth wipers, cleaning products and a wide range of janitorial supplies to companies and programs around the Midwest. Wipeco sells hand sanitizer, toilet paper, and disinfectant to customers such as city bus systems and healthcare facilities, and right now is prioritizing these customers due to their need to remain open and stocked as essential workers. 

 

Wipeco is having all non-essential employees such as their sales team working from home to reduce the risk of spread at this time.  Here are some other changes we have implemented to help keep our employees safe and our customers safe:

 

• We have streamlined and stopped offering nonessential recycling services.
• Truck drivers no longer have access to our warehouse.
• We have increased surface wiping, hand washing and social distancing practices for our remaining employees.
• We have modified our office & warehouse hours to be 8:00am-4:00pm M-F.

 

In addition to these safety changes, Wipeco has also needed to add some policy changes effective due to the pandemic including adjusted shipping and packing policies. Both of our companies are working very hard to fill essential demand for care workers in Chicago and the greater Chicagoland area as well as do everything we can to keep our employees safe.

 

What You Can Do

Now that you know our part in this pandemic, here are some ideas on ways you can do your part in keeping others safe and helping all small companies, schools, and places of gathering get back to normal sooner rather than later…

 

Social Distance

Many of our social media posts of late have reflected and reaffirmed our need to social distance. This is vital to stop the spread of this virus and is of paramount importance for flattening the curve and being able to open places back up.

 

Wash Your Hands

The easiest and quickest way that this virus spreads is through direct contact touch with others who have the virus or from surfaces touched by those carrying the virus. Because coronavirus takes upto 5 days to display symptoms, thorough and constant handwashing is absolutely necessary to stop the spread.

 

Shelter in Place

The governor of Illinois has given the order to shelter in place for anyone who is not an essential employee. This is a necessary step to being able to move on from this pandemic more quickly. We at CTR and Wipeco are only completing the tasks that are absolutely essential in our office and warehouse and working all other tasks from our homes right now. We ask that you do your part in doing the same so that we all can return to gatherings and workplaces and outings sooner rather than later. And so that we can work together to save lives of those at higher risk for this virus. 

 

We so appreciate the patience of our customers at this time and we also appreciate the help of our customers, recyclers and followers in helping to keep everyone safe.

For any questions, please contact us.