By Rick Abercrombie
On behalf of the ClothesBin national organization, local representative Cale Lewis spoke September 9 to St. Andrews Optimists.
The stated mission of ClothesBin is to keep clothing and shoes out of landfills, which at present, are the ultimate destination of 87 percent of all textile waste. Nationally, 17 billion pounds of textile waste is not recycled.
Using 32 highly visible collection bins positioned around the Midlands, ClothesBin collects the donated items in its own trucks. Donors find the bins easy to use and because of studies done by ClothesBin, there is always a collection bin within reasonable driving distance.
Donating organizations are then compensated based on the weight of the donated load. ClothesBin makes collection runs frequently enough that there is rarely any clutter on the premises. The bins are not bolted down to the pavement, so they can be repositioned easily.
ClothesBin delivers the sorted loads to recyclers that shred textile waste for a variety of applications. Lewis reported that the first-ever load that the Columbia location delivered weighed more than 3,000 pounds. Thanks to neighbor telling neighbor about the bins, the usage is increasing.
