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The Bourne Recycling Committee has offered tips to residents on the best ways to discard old clothing and other textile products. The warmer weather, the committee said, is a time when many residents choose to “clean up, sort out and dispose of” things such as old clothing, bedsheets, towels and curtains.
The committee advises residents not to toss these items out with the weekly trash, as they will just take up space in the landfill. An estimated 94 percent of textiles in landfills can be recycled or reused, the committee said.
Old clothes and textiles, the group advised, should instead be taken to recycling boxes located at Bournedale Elementary School, Bourne Intermediate School, Bourne Middle School and Bourne High School. The boxes are also located at Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School and Coast Guard Base Cape Cod. All items must be clean and dry and placed in a bag before they are put in the textile boxes.
The recycling boxes are placed by Bay State Textiles and sponsored by the Bourne parent-teacher association as a fundraiser. The boxes are emptied and weighed weekly, and the company compensates the PTA based on the weight. The committee reported that in the last two months the PTA has received more than $400 from Bay State Textiles.
Also, the Bourne Residential Recycling Center has boxes provided by organizations such as the Red Cross, Salvation Army and Planet Aid. There are also several local thrift shops that accept usable clothing and other household textile items, the committee said.
According to the recycling committee, the Council for Textile Recycling estimated that 48 percent of items placed in the recycling boxes is reusable clothing that can be sorted and exported to areas in need. Another 20 percent is recycled into cleaning rags, and an additional 26 percent can be broken down into fibers for production of other materials.
Items that cannot be placed in the recycling boxes include mattresses, mattress pads, foam, couch and lawn furniture cushions, and carpeting. Mattresses can be recycled at the Residential Recycling Center at the Integrated Solid Waste Management facility. The other items can be disposed of in the roll-off containers.
“When you want to dispose of textile products, remember that it can be a WIN/WIN situation,” the committee said. “Help our local schools, help our environment, help extend the life of our landfill, and help us all to recycle and reuse.”
On a different recycling note, Dorothy’s Swap Shop at the Integrated Solid Waste Management facility off MacArthur Boulevard in Bourne reopened to the public on Monday, June 14. The shop was shut down last year because of the pandemic.
An ISWM press release asks that visitors to Dorothy’s limit their time to 15 minutes.
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