In California, it’s relatively easy to recycle aluminum cans, newspapers or glass bottles. But for one of the most commonly used household products — clothes — options are few.
Every year, tons of unwanted shirts, jeans, dresses, jackets and other garments end up in landfills across the state. Almost none are recycled. Some are donated to thrift stores, but thrift stores often re-sell to companies that ship them to developing nations, such as Ghana and Chile, where they are piled in mountains as high as 50 feet in deserts and along rivers.
On Friday, state lawmakers sent a bill to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk that would require companies to set up the nation’s first mandatory take-back program for unwanted clothes.
If Newsom signs the bill, SB 707, as expected, companies that make clothing and other textiles sold in California, including drapes, sheets and towels, will be required to create a non-profit organization by 2026 that would set up hundreds of collection sites at thrift stores, begin mail-back programs and take other steps in all of California’s 58 counties to take back and recycle their products by 2030.
“All across America, there are closets full of clothing that never gets worn,” said Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste, an environmental group based in Sacramento that supports the bill. “It is surrounding us. Look around your house. It’s the biggest waste problem that we’re ignoring.”
The accumulation of clothing waste is being made worse by “fast fashion,” a trend in which clothing companies make low-cost clothes intended to be worn only a few times as fashions shift.
“We have no use for things that aren’t in fashion, or don’t fit, or are worn out, and they often have no place left to go but the landfill,” Murray said.
The numbers are daunting.
In 2021, roughly 1.2 million tons of clothes and textiles were disposed of in California, according to the California Department of Resources Recycling and…
Read the full article here
