Donating to 'Wear Ever Recycling'

You may have seen them in parking lots, or perhaps you’ve strolled by one on your way to work,

tiny metal dumpsters no bigger than a porta-potty with the famous recycling logo advertised on the side.

Open 24-hours a day and no customer service to deal with, these textile recycling bins are ideal for those looking for the most convenient way to donate their unwanted clothes.

While convenient to donate to, these bins also become a convenient location for people to drop-off their trash. This trash-astrophe is causing some cities to create bans on these convenient donation bins.

Textiles being

"one of the fastest growing waste products" (Twaste)

I wanted to gain a better understanding of this trash-astrophe before this convenient way to donate disappears from my area for good.

I was fortunate to interview Jerry Bauer of 'Wear Ever Recycling: Minnesota’s Clothing Recycler' last month at the Wear Ever warehouse in Blaine, MN.

Wear Ever re-purposing center collected 2.5 million pounds of textiles from their 300+ recycling bins scattered around Minnesota in 2017.

I was able to learn from Jerry where he sends the textiles collected from the Wear Ever recycling bins, hear his unique perspective on textile waste from being in the textile re-purposing business, and we briefly discuss the problems of trash accumulating at these recycling bins and the fear of cities banning them completely.

Textiles Dispersed

Wear Ever Recycling works with a broker company named Whitehouse & Schapiro. This textile trading company buys Wear Ever textiles and sells them to the highest market.

Jerry informs me his textiles are typically dispersed as follows:

Of the 2.5 million pounds of textiles Wear Ever collected last year, only 20% of it was considered “cream,” or, cream-of-the-crop.

“Cream” textiles are like-new clothes that can be resold in the U.S.

Cheap, stained, torn materials are re-purposed as furniture stuffing, pet toys, or rags for industrial use.

Besides windbreaker material, which no one really knows what to do with.

*(blog coming soon of my research on this material)

Most vintage items go to Asia because they have the highest market for them.
Plush toys go overseas where they are handed out free to children at secondhand shops.
White textiles are shipped to Pakistan and India to be bleached because generally their environmental regulations are not as strict as other countries.
Most of the textiles end up in Africa to be sold as affordable clothing.

Jerry made a statement that an item purchased at a thrift shop getting donated to him will rarely end back at a thrift shop in America. Instead, the garment will find its way to a higher market in Southern Africa. He believes the bulk of his textiles end there.

Textile Waste

Being in the textile re-purposing business for the past few years, I was excited to get Jerry's perspective of textile waste and American consumerism.

Jerry has noticed that when the economy is bad, people shop secondhand more.

He reminds me that recycling is a business and Wear Ever is not a non-profit. The prices in which he sells his textiles to sustain the Wear Ever company is always fluctuating.

Recycling is expensive and ultimately unsustainable

Jerry asks “Where’s it all going to go?”

As we stood in the middle of his Wear Ever warehouse with textiles piled as high as the ceiling, I couldn’t help but ask myself that same question, “Where is all of this going to go?”

Let us say these textiles do get worn a couple more times from a different person on a different side of the world, and then they get re-purposed into a dog toy, and then…

Ultimately, it does all end as waste.

I asked Jerry if there was a solution. He says,

"People need to rethink their habits." -Jerry Bauer

He doesn’t claim to be perfect, he too still buys new.

It’s at the rate in which we all consume new things.

We cannot assume our consumption is justified by recycling or re-purposing. Recycling in itself is not great on our environment and should not be considered a solution to textile waste.

Textile waste is not the only waste Wear Ever bins are collecting. From discussing textile waste solutions, my conversation with Jerry switched gears to waste in general and how this waste is causing a distress on some cities.

Trash-astrophe

Jerry understands why people donate their trash at these convenient bins-- they don’t want to pay for the disposal themselves.

Paint, large furniture, mattresses… these items can be inconvenient to throw away and are easier to leave at these bins. Things that are clearly trash, such as fast food waste, candy wrappers and soda containers are the immediate problem.

Don’t donate your trash, that’s not classy!

Cities become motivated to eliminate these sidewalk nuisances by creating bans against them. We now know textile waste is a big deal, so, we don’t want to see these convenient bins no longer be available to us!

Some lawyers are fighting these bin bans as

"Federal appellate judges in a Michigan lawsuit deemed the bins a form of constitutionally protected speech.” (nextcity.org)

Jerry seemed more concerned with the obvious trash being left at his bins more so than the "wish-cycling" products people leave.

"Wish-cycling: The practice of tossing questionable items in the recycling bin, hoping they can somehow be recycled." (Star Tribune 2015)

Truthfully, it can get confusing knowing which items are considered recyclable in your city, since it differs from place to place and always seems to be changing. Searching online for your city's regulations is the best place to start if you're unsure.

Together, we can do better.

Thanks for learning with me this week and continue learning along on Thrift Ethics!

See you on the feed thrifters