Erie Cotton has changed the landscape of Wiping and Recycling over the last 78 years. What started as a “hole in the wall” laundry operation has now become one of the largest producers of Industrial Wiping Cloths in the United States with a 50,000-square-foot facility located in Erie, Pennsylvania.
In 1946, Sidney Rubin founded Sanitary Wiping Cloth Co./Erie Cotton Products after serving in the U.S. Navy for 20 years after World War II. Sidney founded the company by laundering wiping cloths for General Electric in Erie and gradually grew its customer base by delivering product on small vans and trucks in the local market.
In 1969, Gregory Rubin, a second-generation owner, finished four years of service in the Navy and joined Erie Cotton full time. Greg quickly learned that the wiping cloth industry was evolving, and times were changing.
We provide the highest quality wiping and absorption solutions to educate and help fulfill customer needs. We utilize our expertise to solve customer’s problems.
To be a growth oriented, multi-cultural, environmentally conscious company, with the highest quality products that provide opportunities for the team, customers, and the community.
Recycled wiping cloths originate from cotton textiles such as clothing, towels, blankets, sheeting and many other products that work as cleaning and absorbing tools. Recycled clothing rags have been the most abundant and affordable cleaning tools over the last 500 years. Erie Cotton partners with collectors of used clothing that work with large thrift chains such as Goodwill and Salvation Army. The unsold or damaged clothing are the type of products that would qualify as wiping cloths.
In the 1970s, fashion trends consisted of synthetics, polyester leisure suits and many other materials that had no cotton content and would not absorb a drop of water, let alone make a good wiping cloth. Greg needed to find a new option that would clean and absorb. He reached out to Kimberly Clark Corporation, one of the largest nonwoven paper manufacturers in the world, and decided to partner on its new, nonwoven paper wiper line. Since Kimberly Clark offered a product that was able to clean and absorb, Erie Cotton grew its customer base and expanded into surrounding states and the regional market. Erie Cotton soon became the largest single location distributor of Wypall® products in the United States.
In the 1980s, cotton became king. With the popularity of cotton in fashion trends and the new and improved sustainable growing of the cotton plant, recycled wiping cloths became a big player in the marketplace yet again. Erie Cotton grew its recycled line of products and, by doing so, started deferring millions of pounds of textiles away from the landfill. Erie Cotton and the wiping cloth industry are some of the largest recyclers of textiles in the world.
Today, 30 percent of all donated clothing and textiles become wiping cloths, 45 percent are usable clothing, and 20 percent is destined for fiber conversion. Erie Cotton is a proud member of SMART (Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles), whose member companies help to prevent more than 3.8 billion pounds of post-consumer textile waste from ending up in landfills each year.
Product lines include Recycled Wiping Cloths, Nonwoven Paper Wipers, Oil Absorbent products, Industrial Soaps and Hand Cleaners, and many other items that pertain to wiping and absorbing. The company is committed to creating strong partnerships and growth in the Erie community. Erie Cotton currently employs more than 35 individuals, many who are immigrants and refugees.
Erie Cotton is celebrating its 75th anniversary as a proud Erie-based company. Greg and Brian are still working with the same core principles that allowed the company to prosper over the years: Provide a quality product and respect their customers.
