LAKE COUNTY — Hospice Services of Lake County is looking at its expenditures to find ways of making more money for its bottom line.
With the increase of expenditures over the years for the Hospice Thrift Stores, store managers Rosette Copsey and Bob Melia worked together to find ways they can save the organization money. Saving money would then increase the bottom line for the organization that provides care to those with life threatening illness by supporting the patient and family with medical care and support.
“We looked at what we spend for every bill and are finding ways to decrease those expenses, either by recycling or reusing items in a different way,” Melia said.
They called the local garbage companies such as C and S Waste to audit their garbage and give them some ideas on how they can recycle better.
Andrea Rios along with C and S Waste Company came out to conduct the audit and found that 75 percent of its garbage was clothing. They also found out that it has a large amount of electronics and metal recycled and thrown away in the garbage.
“Having Andrea teach us what can be recycled and what has to be thrown away was a big help,” Copsey said. “She shared how we can recycle a few things we didn”t know we could recycle, such as clothing.”
Hospice Services of Lake County partnered with Soex Group, a clothing textile company that buys unsellable clothing. Soex Group”s mission is zero waste. It buys the clothing and creates new products out of the recycled clothing.
Some of the clothing is put into the ReWear program, in which it sends this clothing to developing countries or it develops new products from the recycled clothing that are sold all over the world.
One goal for the Hospice thrift stores is to be as close to zero waste as possible. Once this program is in place, Hospice anticipates saving 75 percent of the items from being thrown into the trash.
Hospice will also make some money from the clothing sales to Soex. During its first pickup, Soex took more than 400 bags of clothing totalling more than 20,000 pounds.
