Free curbside clothing recycling program begins on February 6

January 30, 2017

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A free weekly curbside collection program for clothing and small household items will begin in the city of Southfield on February 6.   

Single family households will soon receive postcards and orange bags to introduce the Simple Recycling curbside clothing recycling program. Residents will be able to fill the orange bags with unwanted clothing, textiles and other household items and set filled bags out for collection on the same day as their weekly trash and recycling collection. Simple Recycling Inc. will collect the full orange bags and leave replacement bags behind.   

The city of Southfield is the eighth RRRASOC member community to implement the curbside clothing recycling program and joins Farmington, Farmington Hills, South Lyon, Walled Lake, Wixom, the Village of Milford and Milford Township in offering the program to its residents.

Simple Recycling employee discards bags of recycling material.

The EPA estimates the average person throws away nearly 70 pounds of clothing and textiles each year, resulting in 14.3 million tons of textiles buried in landfills. Textiles include clothing, footwear, accessories, towels, bedding, drapery and other fabric items. When collected for recycling through Simple Recycling’s program, textiles are sorted and graded by condition. Top quality materials are sold to local thrift stores and anything deemed not resalable in the U.S. is exported as second-hand clothing. The remainder is recycled into rags, fiber for home insulation, carpet padding and textile applications in the automotive industry.   

Residents are encouraged to continue donating unwanted clothing to their favorite charity or thrift shop first. The Simple Recycling program aims to capture the 85% of recyclable textiles still going to landfills.   

For a list of local charitable organizations or for more information about recycling, visit www.rrrasoc.org, or download the “Recycling Authority” mobile app for your iPhone or Android. 

For more information about the clothing recycling program, contact Simple Recycling at 1-866-835-5068 or www.simplerecycling.com.