The Broadway Green Alliance Hosts Textile Drive Tonight, 9/19

The Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) is sponsoring a textile drive for the theater industry and its fans tonight, September 19th from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm in Duffy Square at 46th Street and Broadway (just south of the TKTS booth). Collection drive efforts in the fall of 2011 garnered 1750 pounds of materials, donated by casts & crews of 20 shows, half a dozen costume shops and theatre-related businesses, as well as theater patrons on their way to the Wednesday matinees.

The collection drive is open to all shows, theaters, industry members and fans and is designed to engage members & fans of the industry to join BGA volunteers in keeping textiles out of landfills.

All goods will be collected by Wearable Collections, who will make sure that 96% of everything collected gets re-purposed or recycled. They accept all used clean clothing, including shoes, handbags, belts, and hats, and household & backstage items: curtains, linens, and towels (carpeting is not accepted). Wearable Collections will donate a portion of the proceeds to the Broadway Green Alliance to aid in the BGA's efforts to turn Broadway into the Great Green Way. Although the BGA will not be distributing receipts for tax deductions, the IRS allows donators to claim up to $500 worth of clothing donations without a receipt.

BGA Coordinator, Rebekah Sale, says, ""We are pleased to partner again with Wearable Collections, a leader in the effective reuse and responsible disposal of unwanted textiles. Through these drives, the theatre community keeps tons of used costumes, clothing, towels, sheets and other textiles out of the landfills. Wearable Collections uses nearly half of the donated textile waste as secondhand clothing and processes most of the rest into wiping and polishing cloths or into fibers used in products such as fiberboard, upholstery or new textiles."

Industry members unable to attend the event are welcome to drop off their textiles at one of three locations: TWU Local 764 at 545 West 45th Street, Actors' Equity Association at 165 West 46th Street (14th Floor), or Local 802 AFM at 322 West 48th Street (during regular business hours).

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