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Bright Idea: Hanger recycling program

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By Teri Karush Rogers  |
March 24, 2010 - 12:14PM
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A couple of winters ago, Marina Higgins read a NY Times article about how the skyrocketing price of metal hangers was squeezing drycleaners and their customers.

“It got me thinking about all of the hangers which are thrown by mistake into our buildings’ trash receptacles and end up in landfills,” says Higgins, a vice president at property management and real estate firm Argo Real Estate. “I have always returned hangers to my local dry cleaner and I decided to explore doing this on a larger scale."

Higgins' own drycleaner put her in touch with a “hanger holder” supplier, Minda Supply. Higgins coupled the holder with a simple plastic box from the Container Store and created a hanger recycling receptacle for less than $20.

“We have placed them in the laundry rooms of many of our properties, partnering with local dry cleaners,” she says. 

The receptacles' visibility has drastically decreased the number of hangers winding up in the trash that then must be picked out by building workers.

As for the hangers collected, she says, “our building staff either delivers the hangers or in some cases the cleaners actually pick them up. Building residents have been overwhelmingly responsive, she says, and the local cleaners grateful."

Recent Bright Ideas:

A hand-sanitzer for the lobby

A cure for stroller-strewn hallways

A bike-loan program for your building


Teri Rogers Headshot - Floral

Teri Karush Rogers

Founder & Publisher

Founder and publisher Teri Karush Rogers launched Brick Underground in 2009. As a freelance journalist, she had previously covered New York City real estate for The New York Times. Teri has been featured as an expert on New York City residential real estate by The New York Times, New York Daily News, amNew York, NBC Nightly News, The Real Deal, Business Insider, the Huffington Post, and NY1 News, among others. Teri earned a BA in journalism and a law degree from New York University.

Brick Underground articles occasionally include the expertise of, or information about, advertising partners when relevant to the story. We will never promote an advertiser's product without making the relationship clear to our readers.

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