Upcycling At Goodwill: By Esmond Colvin

          Joy Henry and Myles Beckwith are the current driving forces behind the production of our Goodwill wipers. What are wipers, you ask? Wipers are textiles (clothing items) which are taken daily from our quality pulls (which is when we take items out of our clothing that are not good enough to sell). Shirts that will be made into wipers are also removed while sorting in our textile area. They are then collected, inspected, and cut into wipers.  We produce two types of wipers, terry cloth and 100% cotton wipers. They're separated into both types, and then cut into large squares of cloth. The terry cloth is placed inside boxes and each box is finished when it is weighed in at 30 lbs. The 100% cotton wipers are made from mainly t-shirts that are unsalable in their present condition.  This allows us to recycle the unusable t-shirts into functional wiper cloths that are then available for sale. The wipers are then placed inside bags or boxes, and then weighed to 50 lbs. per box or 10 lbs. per bag. We sell our wipers to surrounding businesses; they use them for a variety of things.  Businesses that currently purchase wipers in bulk from Goodwill are factories, car and boat detailing operations, house-keeping businesses, and machine shops. Also, regular store customers are able to purchase wipers. They can place an order by calling the number listed to the right. Production in our wiper area is consistent throughout the year.

          If you are interested in purchasing our wipers in bulk quantity, please contact us at (440)-964-3565—we would be happy to serve you, as you would be supporting the mission of Goodwill; “Building self-sufficiency through the power of work.”