New York textile recycling program strikes major milestone

NEW YORK (Scrap Monster) : The city’s clothing reuse program re-fashionNYC  has reached a key milestone by successfully recycling 1 million pounds of textiles since its launch almost two years back.

The program, the largest of its kind in the country, was announced in July 2010. After a delay of nearly 10 months, the re-fashionNYC program was officially launched in April 2011 by the Department of Sanitation in collaboration with the city based non-profit organization Housing Works. The program was launched with the ultimate objective of efficiently recycling the estimated 200,000 tons of textiles that the city throws away each year. re-fashionNYC program provides residents with textile recycling bins where they can donate their unwanted clothes, blankets, shoes, belts and other textiles.

The donations are picked up and transported to Housing Works’ warehouse in Queens where they are sorted. A portion of the donations will be sold through Housing Works’ shops. The leftovers of the sale are either made available to other non-profit organizations or shipped to shops in Haiti. The rest will be either recycled or exported to overseas market. The profits of the sales are used towards the benefit of homeless city residents.