Re: [greenyes] textile recycling

["Jenny Bagby" <Jenny.Bagby@no.address>]

Sharon,
In Seattle, over the past two years, yellow and blue metal boxes have
showed up all over the city advertising that you can deposit textiles
for recycling.  These are one source for recycling, at one point I
checked into who owned these and determined there was a legitimate local
connection, but I know that others will respond to this with a warning
about these.  Another way that you can get your textiles recycled and
reused in the Seattle area is through several charitable organizations
who call or send cards periodically (about every 3 months) announcing
that they will have a pickup on such and such a day. They come right to
your house.  We usually get a postcard about once every three months. 
You can also call and schedule a pickup which we have done after a
garage sale.  My understanding is that these collection companies are
paid by the thrift stores for the material.  The collection companies
are affiliated with charitable organizations.  This material definitely
goes to the local thrift stores and they either sell  in their store or
bale and sell to a local textile recycler.
We did negotiate our curbside collection contract such that, at our
option, we could add textiles to the collection system (for no extra
charge for collection) and for $1 ton more on processing (for all
curbside tons, not just textiles) but haven't felt the need to initiate
this due to the strong charitable organization presence in this area. 
Our latest waste stream composition study (2002) showed 2.4% of disposed
residential  msw being textiles (or 3,364 tons).  We have about 560,000
people who reside in Seattle, be interesting to see how the textile data
compares to other places who do waste comp.
Jenny

>>> <Sharon_Gates@no.address> 04/16/04 04:07PM >>>
Any of you GreenYes'ers out there have any recommendations for what to
do 
with unwearable clothing or other scrap textiles?  I have been told
that 
organizations such as Goodwill and Salvation Army recycle donated 
unsaleable textiles, but I hesitate to rely on Goodwill to do my
recycling 
for me.  I have taken a couple of stabs at finding textile recyclers 
either in my area or on the web, with no luck.  What do you do with the

stuff?

Sharon Gates
Recycling Specialist
City of Long Beach, California
562/570-4694