The Green Supports the DRESS FOR SUCCESS event on February 27, 2011

In addition to the obvious benefits to the recipients of the clothiing, this is an important event for the Green Team, According to the non-profit Institute for Local Self-Reliance, textiles make up about four percent of the weight and eight percent of the volume of all municipal solid waste in the U.S. The commercial recycling company U’SAgain finds that some 85 percent of the 70 pounds of textiles the average American purchases each year ends up landfilled. That means the typical U.S. city with 50,000 residents has to pay (with local tax dollars) for the handling and disposal of some 3,000 tons of textiles every year. The shame of such waste is that textiles are so easy to recycle or otherwise find new uses for.

And if you just threw these clothes out, they would end up in the incinerator in Newark, thereby becoming part of the air we breathe.  The benefits of this opportunity are too good to pass up in so  many ways