Elgin is considering offering a service that provides a curbside way for residents to part with unwanted clothing and small household items, even if those items are tattered or broken.
Wednesday night the City Council is set to discuss a three-year agreement with Ohio-based Simple Recycling. The program would be free to residents and to the city. The final vote most likely would be in two weeks.
Elgin Communications Specialist and Sustainability Coordinator Molly Center said the idea for offering such a program in Elgin came up last fall at a meeting of the city’s Sustainability Commission. A request for proposals from textile recyclers was made, with Simple Recycling the only response.
The reason for having the service, Center said, stemmed from working with the city’s waste and recyclables hauler Waste Management on its “Recycle Often, Recycle Right” campaign that emphasizes what can and cannot be put in Waste Management’s recycle bins.
As a memo for the Wednesday meeting notes, “A major issue, not just in Elgin but nationwide, is contamination to recycling. While many times contamination refers to plastic bags and food/liquids mixed in the cart, it also includes all items that cannot be recycled in curbside programs, like clothing and toys.”
To start the offering, Simple Recycling would mail specially-marked drawstring bags to residences, along with communications of how the program works.Residents would place the bags at the curb on their normal garbage collection day for free pickup. When Simple Recycling picks up a bag, drivers would also leave a new bag. Residents could request extra bags by calling Simple Recycling.
According to the meeting memo, “Simple Recycling consolidates material locally and ships it to its facility in Michigan. After that, Simple Recycling establishes relationships with Chicago-area secondary commodity markets to handle the material closer to Elgin.”
In addition to clothing and toys, Simple Recycling takes fashion accessories, purses, sheets, linens, kitchenware, and small household items, regardless of condition. It doesn’t take major appliances, furniture, tires, paint, carpeting, mattresses, metal, glass, paper or hazardous material, according to material provided by the company. Lists are available online at simplerecycling.com.
The company would compensate Elgin on a per-pound basis. Information provided by Simple Recycling claims that the average person throws away 68 pounds of clothing per year. Using that estimate, Elgin staff feels that if 33,000 city homes participate, at least 2,244,000 pounds of clothing could be recycled, providing $22,400 to the city’s budget.
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