Rags to recycling

Tackling the growing problem of textile waste

The city is reviving the 2021 program that saw curbside textile recycling pickup available throughout Kawartha Lakes.

This year, residents will be able to put unwanted clothing and other fabric material items in clear plastic bags for collection Jun. 20-23 and Oct. 3-6. Last year’s pilot program diverted about 47 tonnes, or more than 100,000 pounds, of textiles from landfill. Council has approved its extension until the end of 2023, according to Cheri Davidson, the city’s manager of communications.

The 2022 municipal calendar barely mentions textiles, a category it describes as making up five to 10 per cent of household waste. The only guidance on what to do with old clothes is a note encouraging residents to consider mending items at home before donating or recycling them. Although it’s not spelled out on the municipal calendar, Davidson recently confirmed to the Advocate that people can drop off textiles at the city’s special round-up days on May 28, Jun. 11, Jun. 25 and Jul. 9. On these occasions, residents can take hazardous waste, bulky plastics and textiles ranging from sleeping bags to stuffed toys to winter coats along with shoes to a variety of sites, free of charge.

Another option is for Kawartha Lakes residents to put clothing and other unusable textiles in clear bags and drop them at any of the city’s landfill sites for free at any time. The items are collected by Recycling Rewards, which sends the usable ones to Talize thrift stores. Non-reusable textiles are sent to companies that recycle them into upholstery, stuffing or rags. While the remainder does go to landfill, Davidson said the company has a 98 per cent diversion rate, meaning just two per cent of the textiles it processes ends up in the dump.

Finding ways to recycle clothing and other textiles is increasingly important; the problem of textiles in landfill is a big one, and it’s growing. According to the Recycling Council of Ontario, the average Canadian produces 36 kilograms (about 80 pounds) of textile waste a year, 85 per cent of which is thrown away rather than donated for reuse or recycled.

Claudia Marsales is senior manager of waste management at the City of Markham, which has banned textiles from its landfills. “Because fast fashion has made a lot of clothing so cheap, they don’t last,” she said. “There’s been a massive change of consumption of clothing over the past 20 years. Now we are inundated with having to be on top of different trends in the seasons.”

Studies have shown worldwide textile waste has doubled since 2000. An estimated 10.5 million tonnes of clothes and textiles in North America alone are sent to landfill every year; 95 per cent of them would be fit for either resale or recycling. And there are other costs, too. The cotton needed to make one T-shirt can take about 2,700 litres of water to grow and process, enough water for one person to drink for 900 days.

The life of unwanted clothing and fabric items that are still usable can be extended by donating them to local second-hand stores like Vicky’s Values. The Women’s Resources-owned thrift store features affordable clothes, shoes, accessories, housewares and other donated items. The money raised supports the organizations work on behalf of abused women and children. The store used to send unusable textile donations to be recycled with the Salvation Army, which has since discontinued the service, according to Vicky’s Values manager Sharon Benoit.

In the early days of the first pandemic-related closures, both Vicky’s and the recycling company had to shut their doors, and in the short period they both were open after the first wave, according to Benoit, there were some materials the company could not take — then Vicky’s had to shut down again.

During the second wave, “Our doors closed so we couldn’t keep taking in the donations. We had to stop even accepting them. Our storage container was completely full. Although we were trying to process, we had every corner filled with recycling,” Benoit said.

In July 2021, the program began again. The recycling company, which had previously picked up from Vicky’s twice a week had to come three times a week to get caught up. “Our recyclers used to take anything whether it was ragged or ripped, as long as it was clean,” said Benoit. “But after COVID they said ‘No, it has to be all usable’.” Given that Vicky’s recycler no longer takes items that are only suitable for rags, Benoit said she is glad the dumps are now accepting those textiles.

In Markham, there are drop-off bins located around the municipality. “We licensed certain charities to put a bin in and service that bin,” Marsales said. “They get to keep all the proceeds, but they also provide all the servicing. They do the collection, they keep the revenue, and it’s cost-neutral for Markham, 100 per cent.” The city’s program is in partnership with companies that do textile recycling such as Diabetes Canada and the Salvation Army. Items are then sorted into what is sellable and what will be taken apart for rags and stuffing.

Before the system was in place, Marsales said, donation bins were set up by unlicensed operators and shell companies, making it impossible to figure out where the donations were going. “Now, if an ABC company dropped a bin in Markham and they don’t have a licence, we’d confiscate their bin.”

The problem of textile waste starts much earlier, with the manufacturers whose business model is based on low-quality clothing meant to capitalize on a trend and be discarded within months. These players, Marsales said, “should be subject to extended producer responsibility. Right now, industry responsibility stops at the retail level, and we support the clothing industry being subject to a circular look at what they put on the market. And we hope in Markham through our light-shedding we’ve started that conversation.”