The Northeast Recycling Council (NERC), Brattleboro, Vt., will hold a symposium titled "Collecting Textiles: Make It Work for Your Community" on April 2 at the Nathan Hale Inn & Conference Center at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Conn. The aim of the event is to educate municipalities and the public on the benefits of clothing and textile recycling.
"Textiles in the waste stream are a long over-looked resource, with important environmental and socio-economic value," said Lynn Rubinstein, executive director, NERC. "There is a tremendous opportunity to re-use or recycle clothing and textiles that many people don't realize are available."
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an estimated 70 pounds of clothing and textiles per capita are sent to landfills or incinerated annually in the United States - 25-billion-plus pounds of material in total. Of that total, 95 percent could have been reused or recycled.
Larry Groipen, former president of the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association, will present the keynote address at the symposium. There also will be a panel discussion and presentations by representatives from various clothing and textile recycling companies.
"People don't realize clothing that is stained, is out-of-date, or has been torn can be recycled," Groipen said. "As long as the items are dry and have no offensive odors, there is a use for them in the textile recycling industry. If they aren't re-used as clothes, they may be cut into wiping cloths or broken down into their basic fibers to be re-manufactured into new products."
