Philadelphia Partners with Souderton’s Retrievr to Tackle Recycling of Electronic, Clothing Waste

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Image via Jessica Blatt Press, The Philadelphia Citizen.

As part of its SmartCityPHL Initiative and the Pitch & Pilot program it oversees, Philadelphia’s Office of Technology and Innovation has selected Souderton’s Retrievr to tackle two of the least-often recycled sources of waste, electronics and clothing, writes Jessica Blatt Press for The Philadelphia Citizen.

Philadelphia residents throw away over 35,000 tons of clothing and other textiles every year. And while electronic waste makes up just two percent of landfills trash nationally, it equals 70 percent of toxic waste.

Retrievr, which is a New York-based startup with a growing presence in Montgomery County, is addressing this problem by using the model cities use for recycling. The company picks up waste from people’s homes directly for a fee using an app that already has over 80 participating municipalities.

The startup then sends the items it collected to “downstream” companies that have been vetted to ensure they do right by both their employees, the environment and uphold a certain level of data security.

The electronics are then taken apart and further recycled while the clothing is sold to bulk buyers who decide if it will be resold or downcycled into other uses such as furniture stuffing.

Read more about Retrievr at The Philadelphia Citizen by clicking here.

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