This year on America Recycles Day, it's time to add textile recycling like clothing, shoes and household goods to the list of things celebrated and discussed. America Recycles Day, November 15, 2012, is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling.
This year, in honor of the holiday, Community Recycling, Illinois AmVets and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation will come together to improve awareness about textile recycling within our community.
"Illinois AmVets and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation are thrilled to take this opportunity to further educate our residents about the need for textile recycling to support our mission of helping to provide services and resources to these charities and their families," said Tom Foley on behalf of the non-profits. "It is especially relevant as we consider the importance and meaning behind textile recycling on a day where most folks are just thinking about traditional recyclables like paper, plastic and aluminum."
Community Recycling is an environmentally conscious textile recycling company that collects unwanted textiles and related materials that are responsibly distributed for reuse, resale and recycling in the US and abroad. Community Recycling is proud to partner with longtime textile collectors AmVets and JDRF in the local area in order to take textile recycling in the region to a new level. Donations of clothing and household goods have been turning discarded materials into productive uses for hundreds of years and is also one of the best resources for textile recycling.
"When we reuse, items are used again just as they are. A shirt is a shirt, a pair of shoes is a pair of shoes, and a belt is a belt," Pomerantz said. "When you consider the human aspect of this, you will realize that someone will literally walk in your shoes and wear the shirt off of your back!" There is no down side!"
The environmental benefits from textile recycling are significant. Reusing and re-wearing saves water, reduces energy usage, cuts down on greenhouse gas emissions, and helps to prevent air, water and solid-waste pollution. The EPA estimates that every person in the US disposes of about 70 lbs. of usable and re-wearable textiles each year. Items such as shoes, clothes and bags are very dense and take up a lot of space in the landfill landscape. Despite the growing green movement, most people in the US are unaware that textiles can be recycled, creating local economies and jobs both here and abroad.
"The Am Vets and JDRF attended collection sites for recycling of textiles are valuable asset to the Chicago Metro community," said Lisa Pomerantz, VP of Marketing and Business Development. "We are always supportive of easy and convenient ways to enable everyone to participate in textile recycling. Our goal during this week is to celebrate America Recycles Day with a textile spin, getting as many people as we can to the attended sites for drop-off and keeping clothes and goods out of landfills."
Source:
http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/textile-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=117997
