Drive up, drop off, drive home warm inside

Lint Drives

Our drive-up Lint Drives run every sweater season, mostly on Saturdays, mostly in church parking lots. Stay in your car. A volunteer in a sage vest will come to your window with a clipboard and a kind word.

Volunteers receiving lint donations at a drive-up Lint Drive

The fall drive at Good Shepherd Lutheran, Waverly. A record morning: 4.2 pounds.

Upcoming drives

DateLocationHoursNotes
Sat, Oct 3Good Shepherd Lutheran, Waverly, IA8 am to noonCoffee provided. Decaf only, after the incident.
Sat, Oct 10St. Norbert's overflow lot, Sheboygan, WI9 am to 1 pmEnter from the alley. The main lot is for the rummage sale.
Sat, Oct 17First Methodist, Owatonna, MN8 am to noonJar exchange available. Bring a jar, leave with a cleaner jar.
Sat, Oct 24Cornbelt Community Church, Ames, IA9 am to 1 pmOur sorting supervisor will be signing certificates.
Sat, Nov 7Hope Reformed, Pella, IA8 am to 11 amFinal drive before the frost. Bring everything you have.

Acceptance standards

We are grateful for every donation, and we are also a certified fiber-recovery facility with standards. Please review before your first drive:

  • Navel lint only. This is our founding rule and it is explained, twice, in the FAQ.
  • Any clean jar or paper envelope. No plastic bags. Lint deserves to breathe, and so do our sorters.
  • All colors welcome. Blue-gray dominates, and our graders enjoy a surprise.
  • No loose deliveries. Do not hand a volunteer an unconstrained tuft through a car window on a windy day. We lost most of the 2019 spring harvest this way.
  • Label if known. Donor name, collection period, and dominant sweater are helpful but optional.
Volunteers grading donated lint at the sorting table

The grading line in Oskaloosa. Every tuft, inspected by hand.

Interactive tool

Lint Yield Estimator

Estimate your annual navel yield and see how many warblers you could warm. Figures reviewed by our sorting supervisor and deemed plausible.

4 days a week
1.0 g estimated annual yield
3 warblers warmed per year

Pledge your lint