Textile recycling link fu

https://www.curbmyclutter.com

Expect edits.

http://www.waste360.com/generators/renewal-workshop-helps-apparel-brands-repurpose-textiles

Laundering with phase changing CO2. I bet that is nearly universally dye safe too!

https://renewalworkshop.com

Unfortunately, no plus sizes to speak of. Artifact of the underlying brands currently participating.

https://www.columbia.com/About-Us_Giving-Back_Rethreads.html

This might lead to more plus size options, since Columbia actually has some plus size stuff, vs. the companies participating in the Renewal Workshop’s activities.

They are working with:

https://www.ico-spirit.com/en/

I’m not sure, but I have this suspicion that Plated’s shredded denim insulation may come from I:CO.

I’ve been finding things in part via this article:

http://www.waste360.com/waste-reduction/early-efforts-tackle-mounting-textile-waste-part-two

Curbside textile pickup:

http://www.waste360.com/waste-reduction/how-one-company-capitalizing-its-free-curbside-textiles-collection-model

This is about Simply Recycling, started in SE Michigan, then to my area (really?) and then to Connect the Dots. Instead of calling your favorite charity and having everything bagged for them to pickup on whatever day they tell you to have it out for, you get special bags and set it out at the curb with your regular trash / recycling on your regular pickup day. After that, as near as I can tell, the process is _exactly_ the same as if the charity truck came and got it (or you stopped at the Middle Class Guilt Reduction Station nearest you and put it in the bins): local / domestic thrift stores pay to cherry pick it, and after that, it goes off to some place in NJ or wherever to be sorted and baled for container shipping overseas.

We’ve seen this show before: we did it with newspaper recycling and can drives, and we’ve done it was plastics, and we’ve done it with cardboard. First we make people go out of their way to recycle. Then non-profits figure out there is some money to be scraped up here. And after that, municipalities start doing it to reduce the cost of land filling that part of the waste stream. Some time after that (at least if you are Seattle) you aren’t allowed to throw that category in the “trash” or you risk a fine.

Cameras in Bins: Link Fu

http://www.waste360.com/fleets-technology/how-some-california-municipalities-are-using-technology-tackle-waste-reduction

https://compology.com/blog/contamination-identification-tech-report

Basically: cameras in dumpsters in conjunction with a software package and/or a software service. The idea is to ensure compliance in terms of what goes into the dumpster. In one case, it looks like it is compliance on organic waste. In the other case, it is compliance on contamination rules enforced by China on plastics. It is possible this is just ONE case, and I misunderstood — but I don’t think so.

China has occasionally in the past stopped accepting plastics for recycling, and based part of that refusal on contamination. However, it looks like this time around, they really mean it. And good for them. We’ve done more than enough damage to their environment, by sending our food contaminated single use plastics to them, where mom-and-pop operations did vile things to their environment cleaning them out so they could be pelletized and used as post-consumer plastic input for new products. Bleach in a peach orchard, type of thing. Depressing.

Still, sort of weird to think our solution to some of this problem involves cameras in dumpsters. Where are people in cop shows going to dump bodies now? Or, really, anything!

ETA:

More about the China ban:

http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/20/news/china-trash-recycling-environment/index.html

The reason for the slow / delayed coverage and storage of recyclables before tipping or burning them is that previous bans by China had been reversed. This one, not so much. Also, this has _never_ happened before during a boom. Other bans occurred during busts.

China setting up inspection pre-shipment:

http://www.recyclingtoday.com/article/bir-china-preshipment-inspection-exports/

This seems like a really good idea. That way, China can get the materials it needs, without having to process through our garbage under the illusion that it is somehow “recyclable”. Good for them — I suspect they led with the ban, rather than the inspection process, because they figured no one would take the ban seriously until it had been solidly enforced (har de har har) for over a year.

Pre-shipment inspection facilities don’t just benefit China, either. They could potentially make much more viable domestic processing of recyclables. I foresee some enforcement in our future.

Phoenix, their woes, where they will be going from here, plastic bags in recycling:

http://www.ahwatukee.com/news/article_8a51cb6a-6396-11e8-bb85-97d793d22b65.html