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ATLAS of Rock County is adding another tool to its arsenal of ministries to serve the community.
Workers broke ground last week on a 20-by-30-foot detached building on the northwest corner of the existing building that will house a clothing baler to more efficiently process donations.
The ATLAS location (in the former Luverne Kawasaki) houses the Redeemed Remnants thrift store, which sells donated household items, books, toys, furniture and more at a profit to support ATLAS ministries.
At the back-alley drop-off door, the organization accepts hundreds of bags of donated clothing each week to be sorted by an army of volunteers.
The best items are sorted and sent to the showroom floor with price tags on them.
Items deemed to be less saleable are donated to other organizations, and the least desirable items are hauled to Rock Valley, Iowa, to be baled and distributed to more destitute regions of the world.
“Clothing bales are the industry standard for clothing recycling,” said ATLAS director Michael Blank. “It’s the most efficient and cost-effective way to move clothing.”
He said his staff and volunteers make the weekly two-hour round trip to Rock Valley with items to be baled.
To save money and streamline operations, ATLAS purchased its own baler this spring so that donations can be processed on site.
“As a ministry we don’t like to talk about money, but over the past seven years it has cost ATLAS a lot of money to get rid of excess clothing,” Blank said.
“I’ve been here almost four years, and it’s always been costly to haul clothing to Justice For All in Rock Valley and to Savers in Sioux Falls, but when the gas prices went up, we wondered how many of our volunteers would continue driving.”
He said the baler solves the problem of space (piled up donations) and transportation (gas and time).
Once clothing is baled, MCR picks it up to transport to their facility in Watkins, Minnesota, to be distributed around the world. “I’ve always wondered, when you see a picture of a little boy in Africa wearing a Nike shirt … this is evidently how that happens,” Blank said.
6,000-pound machine to make 1,200-pound clothing bales
The 20-by-30 cement slab was poured Monday for the wood and steel building, which will not be insulated and won’t have a foundation. It will house a used 6,000-pound clothing baler that ATLAS bought from a party for $2,500 under cost.
Like a hay baler, the clothing baler is 12 feet tall and 5 feet square and makes 3-by-4-foot bales that are 3 feet high, 1,200 pounds per bale.
About 70 garbage bags of clothing makes a bale. “You can see the amount of space we’re saving.”
MCR will show ATLAS staff — a paid part-time employee — how to safely and efficiently make bales, and discuss inventory and what they’d like to see come their way.
The bales have value as a commodity, and MCR pays ATLAS based on the quality of the clothing in the bales.
“Our bales will be graded,” Blank said “They’ll take apart one of the bales and determine quality and type of clothing. They already gave us a list of what they don’t accept.”
The list includes:
•No wet or mildewy clothes – we have no way of getting rid of that.
•No stained or greasy clothes (oils).
•Nothing with microbeads in it (typically used for stuffing – pillows, stuffed animals).
•No scraps of material. “Scraps have been left, and we can’t take that. We can’t take it for JFA or even for the baler, because they don’t take clothing scraps,” Blank said.
“We sort through it and take the best of the best for the showroom floor. Then we sort for good used clothing and bale.”
Some clothing that’s not usable gets shredded for use in automotive industry, for filler. “The good thing is 100 percent of what gets baled is going to get used for something,” Blank said.
He encourages people to be judicious about donations, essentially requesting that donors don’t bring items they wouldn’t consider wearing themselves.
“We accept only good, used clothing,” Blank said. “Minnesota Clothing Recyclers are very specific about what they will take, so we have to be specific about what we will take.”
All for the cause
The better the donations, the better it is for the nonprofit Christian ministry of ATLAS … “To offer support and assistance to those struggling with life’s difficult issues,” according to its website.
Blank said ATLAS stands ready to help those who are truly in need. “There are people who move in and have totally nothing. Through ATLAS we take housewares and things at RR and provide them to people who truly are in need. Who have nothing. At no cost.”
He clarifies that these are people in emergency situations.
ATLAS works with the Southwest Crisis Center, Southwest Health and Human Services, Salvation Army, UCAP – United Community Action Partners, Marshall.
Blank said Christian ministry is needed now more than ever.
“We see it all the time. … there are some people who ride the system and get along, but we’ve seen medical emergencies put a family in situations.”
He said mental health can be quickly affected by financial uncertainty.
“The number of people we see sinking into mental depression and anxiety is much more than we used to,” Blank said. “Personally, I think people are losing hope.”
He said he thinks this might be because fewer people believe in a higher power.
“A lot of people who come to us, they don’t know Jesus,” Blank said. “If you’re going through this world and you have no hope, you’re in a bad place.”
But he said this sometimes leads to opportunities to minister.
“Obviously we’re a faith-based ministry here. Many people have walked away from Jesus, but I can cite examples of people who, because of what we do here, have explored their faith and gone deeper in their faith. … I absolutely love working here.”
To understand the mission, he said, it’s easier to understand why ATLAS is investing in the $43,000 construction and $4,500 clothing baler.
“We already wrestle with the public’s view of … we’re giving money to ATLAS, but you’re building this building. … I think they think we’re getting a little sidetracked about what we do here,” Blank said.
“This problem of getting rid of excess clothing has been a problem ever since ATLAS came here to this community. … With the new baler, we hope to turn that around and actually generate money for ATLAS and what ATLAS does in the community.”
What ATLAS does, Blank said, is minister to the community through Redeemed Remnants, the ATLAS community bike shop, mentoring and other services made possible through volunteers.
“It’s a place where volunteers can donate time in a relaxed atmosphere … it helps people that way, too,” Blank said, explaining that volunteerism in itself is a form of therapy.
The ATLAS baler in Luverne is expected to be operational in October. “Once the baler goes on the cement slab and is upright, the electrician can hook it up,” Blank said.
Clothing donations are accepted at the Redeemed Remnants back door during business hours only.
“Please don’t leave items outside,” Blank said.