SANTA MONICA—The city announced in a press release on January 21 that collection bins will be placed to gather unwanted clothing from residents for recycling purposes.
The city will team up with USAgain to place three textile recycling collection bins that will be open to residents year-round. The bins are located at the Animal Shelter at 1640 9th Street, City Hall at 1685 Main Street and the City Yards at 2500 Michigan Avenue.
Residents can bring any unwanted clothing and drop them off, though the city requests that residents first consider giving clothing that is still usable to a charity. USAgain’s website notes that they will take clothing, shoes and household textiles like tablecloths and towels, but they ask that mattresses, carpet and toys not be left at these bins.
In addition to the new bins, the City Yards will hold a textile collection event on February 8 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Like the year-round bins, the event will take “clean, dry clothing,” where they will be later sorted for re-use or recycling.
USAgain places its bins all around the country in cooperation with local governments to collect unwanted clothing for reuse, reselling or recycling to wholesalers, thrift stores and textile recyclers. They state that they have 10,000 bins in operation all throughout the United States and collected 58 million pounds of clothing in 2012.
For more information regarding the recycling bins or the February 8 event at the City Yards, residents can contact the Resource Recovery and Recycling Division by phone at 310-458-2223 or by email at Recycling@smgov.net.