Green

Give us your Clothes

Clothes are often one of the most overlooked items for recycling. Most of us either give them to our younger siblings or throw them away. If you want to put a figure to the wastage try 190,000 tons. That’s how much of clothes end in New York landfills alone. That is a shame if you think about it. Clothes can be recycled or even given away to charity.

New York City is trying to do something positive about this issue. From September of this year, 50 collection bins will be placed throughout the city in an attempt cajole the public to do something positive. The bins will be located in high traffic areas in order to achieve maximum visibility and accessibility.

NYC has called for bids from non-profit companies who are willing to come on board for a 10-15 year period. Goodwill Industries International is one of the companies that are interested in the venture. Goodwill appears to want the clothes for reselling purposes as many items are hardly damaged or require very little mending. They also appear to have methods to recycle even tattered pieces of clothing. It is expected that over half the donations will be of resalable nature, most of the rest used in the automotive industry as well as the insulation industry. What remains is projected to be only about five percent of the original volume and that is what will finally end up in a landfill.

If the project kicks off well and finds success, other states are soon set to follow NYC’s example.