Newington to offer Curbside Textile Recycling Service:  

Starting on 10/29/18, the Town of Newington will begin offering a convenient new recycling service for residents, curbside collection of used textiles and small household items.  This new service will be provided by Simple Recycling and will be free to the town and free to residents.

How It Works

Simple Recycling will send informational mailers to residents who receive recycling collection from the town.  The mailers will contain free Simple Recycling bags.  When cleaning out closets or disposing of unwanted clothes and small household items, residents can place them in the bags.  Residents can then place the bags at the curb near their recycling container on their normal recycling collection day.  Simple Recycling’s trucks will pick them up, free of charge.

When Simple Recycling collects bags from a residence, the collection worker will leave replacement bags at the curb.  If a resident has a lot of material to get rid of, and doesn’t have enough bags, then that’s no problem.  It’s OK to use regular trash bags that are clearly marked for Simple Recycling.  Residents can also contact Simple Recycling for more bags here.

Benefits for the Environment

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), more than 84% of old clothes, shoes, belts, handbags, and textile items end up in a landfill or an incinerator?¹ In fact, the average person in America throws away more than 85 lbs. of textile items each year.² Textiles make up more than 6% of all the residential and municipal trash in the US.³   Every ton diverted from the waste stream saves the town money in disposal costs.

Clothing and textiles require a lot of resources to make, including water, fertilizer, and pesticides for growing natural fibers like cotton, as well as petroleum to make synthetic fibers. When we reuse and recycle textiles, it conserves the resources used to make them.  

Items Accepted

Notes:

1.      Advancing Sustainable Materials Management, 2014 Fact Sheet, released November 2016, US Environmental Protection Agency, p. 8

2.      Ibid.  Pounds per person is calculated by dividing total US disposed textiles tonnage in 2014 by the US population in 2014, per the US Census (318.6 million).

3.      Ibid.