Philadelphia, PA - Clothing & Electronics Recycling

1,224 Residents Served

47,705 LBS of Clothing Collected

18,728 LBS of Electronics Collected

66,433 Landfill Diversion Total

Step 2: Use your address to make sure you are in our service area

Step 3: Tell us the clothing and electronic you wish to recycle

Step 4: Schedule a date for your pickup appointment.

Step 5: Bag or box up your items and leave them by your door.

Step 6: On your selected day, a truck will come right to your door.

On the day of your appointment, bag up your items and leave them on your porch. Please make sure they’re sheltered from the weather; we need your items to stay dry. If you prefer, you can instead leave your items just inside your door and ask that we ring your bell when we arrive. Learn more.

Fees

Retrievr charges a flat $10 doorstep convenience fee for clothing and any small electronics. If any of the below items are included with your pickup, the doorstep convenience fee is waived. We charge convenience fees for the following items:

$10 for each microwave
$35 for each TV under 150 lbs and monitors that use a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)
$100 for each TV 150 lbs or more, such as those with wooden cabinets or rear-projection TVs
$50 for each dehumidifier
$50 for each window air-conditioner
$50 for each mini refrigerator under 50 lbs

“I had several items that we’ve been holding onto, not really knowing what to do with them. Retrievr came and picked up all of them. This is an awesome program!”
— Deneen, Lower Merion (PA) resident
“My wife is so happy! She calls me a hoarder but I’m not really. The first couple of times I cleaned out my stuff. This is my third time and I’m finally getting rid of my kid’s old gaming equipment. It’s so easy and kinda fun.”
— Andy, 56
“This is great—my wife and I have been trying to get rid of these old TVs for years. We can’t lug these things anywhere. I’m happy to see them finally gone and it’s nice to know they will be recycled.”
— Lou, Retired
“Gloucester Township is committed to bringing services like Curb My Clutter to our residents to improve their lives while minimizing the environmental impact of our community and saving taxpayer dollars associated with waste disposal.”
— David Mayer, Mayor, Gloucester Township (NJ)
“I’ve called everywhere trying to find a place to take this stuff and no one wants it! Your service is excellent and I’m going to tell everyone on my block.”
— Dennis, Retired
“My kids grow through clothing so fast that their cousins can’t even take any more of the hand-me-downs. Now I send a text— and you show up at my door.”
— Elizabeth, 39
“The process was perfect! Thanks very much! More communities need to have this service and I have never understood why they do not. Keep up the great work!”
— Doris, 68
“We recently moved and had a lot of stuff that we did not want to take to our new home. My wife and I scheduled a couple of collections. It was fast, easy, and you showed up on the day you promised. We’ve even used it at our new home.”
— Mike, 45
“The driver was such a polite and nice young man. He was quick and carefully took care of everything. Thank you!”
— Sue, 55
“Lower Merion Township is proud of our efforts to reduce our environmental impact and save taxpayers money. It’s not often we get to announce a program that does both. That’s exactly what we found with retrievr. Our residents get a convenient way to reduce their household clutter, we save on disposal fees, and most importantly, clothing and electronics stay out of the waste stream.”
— Ernie McNeely, Lower Merion (PA) Township Manager
“The Town of Westfield’s Green Team has been working hard to find sustainable solutions. We are committed to bringing services like retrievr to our residents to improve our quality of life and minimize the environmental impact of our community and save taxpayer dollars associated with waste disposal.”
— Shelley Brindle, Mayor, Town of Westfield (NJ)
“Star Disposal has been a leader in the community in bringing low-cost dependable waste disposal to the City of Bethlehem, PA. We’re now excited to partner with Retrievr where residents can get their used apparel and electronics collected via a text. It’s an easy way to minimize environmental impact of communities while reducing household clutter.”
— Bob McCarthy, CEO, Star Disposal

Getting Started

Yes you are! We’re still the same company, just with a new name. We feel that Retrievr is a bit more “on the nose” in describing what we do: whether you’re a homeowner or a manufacturer, you can tell us what to fetch and we’ll go get it.

Since you’re already here on our website, just click on the orange “Schedule a Pickup” button.

Or, you may text the word PICKUP to 757-70-FETCH (757-703-3824), and we’ll send you a link to our online scheduling form.

This is our new online scheduling form, just launched in October. We got a lot of feedback from our customers that you wanted a faster way to schedule their pickups. This online form does exactly that: when you text us, we send you a personalized link. Use it to register (if you’re new to Retrievr), tell us what you’re recycling, and schedule your pickup.

Save the link, and you can use it later to cancel or reschedule your appointment.

For those who prefer to stick to texting, you can still do so. While the online form is faster and we think it’s a better experience, we know not everyone can browse the web with their phones.

You can schedule your pickup entirely over text message, if that’s easier for you. When you get our welcome text with the link to our scheduling form, you’ll also see instructions for how to continue using text messages. Instead of clicking on the link, simply reply to our message as instructed.

You can call us at 757-70-FETCH (757-703-3824) and leave a voice mail message. A support agent will contact you and schedule your pickup over the phone.

Two ways. One is to text the word PICKUP to 757-70-FETCH (757-703-3824). We’ll ask for your address and tell you if you’re in our area. Or, you can go to our Locations page to see if we service your town.

Collection & Recycling

We’ll take just about any clean and dry textile or fabric in your home, and most electronic devices or accessories. Please note that we do not take household appliances, such as dishwashers, refrigerators, toasters, vacuums, hair dryers and the like. Please see our How It Works page for the full list of accepted items.

Our mission is to give your items the best possible second life and divert it from landfills. If an item can be resold (as-is, or with a bit of mending), that is our first option. If that’s not possible, your items get recycled in one of several ways. Learn more about how your items get a new life when we Close the Loop.

You can box or bag up any small electronics devices or accessories, such as phones, keyboards, mice, or anything similar. You do not need to box up your larger items like TVs or microwaves. Simply leave those larger items by your door, along with any bags or boxes of smaller items or clothing.

The most important thing is to keep them sheltered from the weather. We typically recommend on your porch just outside your door, or just outside your garage. If you are uncomfortable leaving more valuable items outside, check the next question.

Yes! You might prefer to keep items like computers, phones, or tablets indoors until the driver arrives. When you schedule your pickup, you can ask Retrievr to ring your bell when they arrive. To keep our service contactless, our driver will remain at least 6 feet away from your door until all of your items are outside of your home.

Rewards & Fees

Fees for pickup can vary depending on your location. Retrievr charges convenience fees for items that are particularly hard to collect. These fees can vary with your Location, but typically include:

$10 for each microwave
$35 for each TV under 150 lbs and monitors that use a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)
$100 for each TV 150 lbs or more, such as those with wooden cabinets or rear-projection TVs
$50 for each dehumidifier
$50 for each window air-conditioner
$50 for each mini refrigerator under 50 lbs

No. Just as your recycled paper, bottles and cans are not tax deductible, neither are recycled clothing and electronics.

If you have access to a local donation center and prefer to donate some or all of your items, we respect that choice. Donation keeps your items out of the landfill, which makes us happy.

As of May 2020, the promotion to earn rewards for trade-in items has ended. Stay up to date for new promotions by visiting this page, we’ll be sure to let you know what’s next!

Data Safety

The best way to keep your data private is to remove it yourself, before you recycle your devices.

If you can’t or forget to remove your data, you can rest easy. Retrievr is proud to be your last line of defense in protecting your personal data. We are an e-Steward Enterprise, and all electronic devices we receive are recycled by trusted e-Steward or R2-certified electronics recycling partners. That certification means – among other things – that their data removal processes comply with NIST data destruction guidelines.

The step-by-step instructions vary by the type of device. To skip straight to those instructions, choose one of the links below:

The instructions above will walk you through the four steps for removing your data.”

If your device doesn’t power on, there’s no need to take any further action. Retrievr considers these devices scrap, and we send them to a trusted e-waste recycler to be shredded. Shredding the device completely destroys your data.

Removing your data is actually the last step in a four step process. If you want access to any of your files later, or if you want to make sure your data is thoroughly removed and unreadable, then you’ll want need to address these four stages:

Back up the data you wish to save. If you have photos, emails, files, or other data you want to keep, your first step is to copy them somewhere safe before you start deleting. Learn more about options and why this is important.
Isolate your device. Remove any connections to wireless networks, paired devices (e.g., Bluetooth headphones, Apple Watch) or cloud-based applications that sync with your device (e.g., iTunes, iCloud, Dropbox).
Encrypt your data. Encryption scrambles the data on your phone and asks you to set a PIN or password. This means that even if someone is able to recover a fragment of an old file, they won’t be able to read it. Learn more about encryption.
Remove your data. Wiping your device (often called a Factory Reset) removes any files and apps you added to your device, and restores it to the state it was when it left the factory. Learn more about why you need to wipe your device, not just delete files.

For device-specific instructions, check out the following links on how to delete your personal data from a Windows desktop or laptop computer, Apple product (e.g., iPhone, iPad, Macbook), or Gaming system, smart home, or Android device.

Deleting a file doesn’t actually erase it from your computer; it only hides the file from view. To a computer, “delete” just means that the space in memory is now free to use the next time you create a new file. When that space is used again, the new file takes the place of the old file, and the old file is now truly gone. But until the new file overwrites the deleted file, your delete file is still there and can be accessed by someone who knows how to pull it directly from your computer’s hard drive. Wiping your device protects against that.

Working with Us

Retrievr has a track record of partnering with municipalities across the New Jersey and Greater Philly area that are taking a leadership position in achieving their zero waste goals. When you partner with Retrievr, your residents can text our number to bring a truck to their doorstep for a convenient and safe pickup. Retrievr is free to the municipality.

Absolutely! We know that as a hauler you already have trucks and expertise in picking up used goods for recycling but that clothing and electronics haven’t been on your list before due to the unpredictable and inefficient nature of these pickups. Work with us and we take the guesswork out of which households have these valuable items – in fact we just hand you the exact house and route sheet making it profitable and worth your while.

Your customers are looking for responsible ways to recycle or repurpose the clothing and devices they no longer use. Motivated businesses offer Retrievr to their customers as an easy way to keep their products out of landfills and recoup their goods or raw material, all while building customer loyalty and reinforcing their sustainability mission. Moreover, when brands use Retrievr as a means to offer their customers discounts or promotions at the time of recycling, you capture their attention right as they may be contemplating a future purchase.