The Town of Bethlehem helped launch the Clothes the Loop NY statewide environmental campaign with a successful textile collection event on America Recycles Day, Saturday, Nov. 15.
The town partnered with the Bethlehem Central School District, the Delmar Farmers Market and the American Clothing Recycling Company, based in Glens Falls, to hold this first event of its kind. More than 17,000 pounds of clothing, footwear and cloth products were collected for reuse and recycling and diverted from the landfill. The material from this single event averages out to nearly 2 pounds for each household in Bethlehem, or more than a half pound for every resident. The event also raised $871 for Bethlehem Central School District environmental programs.
Clothes the Loop NY aims to increase clothing and textile recovery from the waste stream statewide, as well as inform residents to reuse and recycle all unwanted clothing, footwear, and other textiles such as sheets, towels, tablecloths, pillows, stuffed animals, even fabric scraps and socks.
“We received a lot of thanks from people for hosting this collection; most of whom hadn’t realized that in addition to wearable clothing, these other types of textiles and footwear should also be donated for reuse or recycling rather than thrown away – even if items are ripped, missing buttons, have a broken zipper, or are stained,” said Dan Rain, Town of Bethlehem recycling coordinator and chairman of the Clothes The Loop NY campaign for the New York State Association for Reduction, Reuse and Recycling.
Residents are urged to drop off textiles at a local charitable organization, or by using clothing collection bins found throughout the region. Visit www.NYTextiles.org for more information.
