The Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles (SMART) Association, Bel Air, Md., has developed a set of documents including a position paper and draft legislative language to help local governments establish procedures to manage clothing collection bins. It also has formed a committee of heads of companies that conduct collection bin programs with the aim of promoting clothing recycling via approved collection bins, and has developed a Code of Conduct for its member companies that have set up clothing collection bins.
"Local legislators should consider clothing to be a recyclable, just like aluminum cans, plastic bottles, newspaper and cardboard," said Jackie King, executive director, SMART. "Clothing collection bins are a convenient alternative that encourages the public to direct clothing into the recycling stream and out of local landfills." King added that according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 22.18 billion pounds of textiles are sent to municipal landfills every year — 95 percent of which could be recycled — compared to 4 billion pounds of textiles that are reused or recycled.
