Carpet Manufacturer Boosts Jobs With Recycling

Shaw Industries Group, the industry’s largest manufacturer of commercial and residential carpeting and floor coverings, has recently announced that it will expand its waste recycling and reclamation efforts with a new Evergreen constructed facility in Ringgold, Georgia. It is expected that the new recycling processing facility will create seventy new full-time employment opportunities. Currently, Shaw employs over fifteen thousand people throughout its offices and production plants within the state of Georgia and the southeastern region of the United States.

Shaw has successfully reclaimed and recycled in excess of seven hundred million pounds of carpet, hardwood, laminate, tile and stone flooring products, and synthetic turf since the company started its popular take-back reclamation program in 2006. The new Evergreen Ringgold recycling plant will give the company increased flexibility for developing recycling solutions for its nylon and polyester carpet and flooring products.

In addition, the Evergreen Ringgold facility will be responsible for producing high quality post-consumer recycled materials that can be re-sold for use in a wide range of products and applications. The company’s ultimate goal is to reclaim the highest percentage of their carpeting and floor as possible, thus keeping unwanted materials out of landfills and generating and additional revenue stream. The facility is on schedule to be fully operational by 2015.

Georgia Quick Start, the state’s workforce training program, will collaborate with Shaw’s employees to ensure that proper training is available to support the new recycling initiatives.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: If your business or place of employment generates a significant amount of waste materials that can be recycled or re-sold, it may be in your best interest to develop your own recycling processing facility. You’ll create jobs, reduce waste, and develop new revenue streams!

 

North Carolina Recycling Experiences Growth

Unifi has recently announced that its REPREVE® Recycling Center is undertaking an expansion of services and adding new jobs. The facility, which operates in Yadkinville, North Carolina and opened in May 2010, is expecting to increase its waste materials processing from forty two million pounds annually, to nearly seventy two million pounds. This growth is being fueled by increased customer participating in recycling and new customer acquisition. The Center’s current customer roster includes Ford Motor Corporation, Nike,The North Face, Patagonia, Volcom, and others.

Due to the growth in the Recycling Center, it is anticipated that ten new jobs will be created this year including filling hiring needs for managers, machine operators and recycled material handlers. The company recently spent five million dollars for capital expenditures and new machinery in preparation for the expansion and growth opportunities.

The fastest and largest growing segments for the Recycling Center are in the apparel, textile, and automotive sectors. The new improvements and expansion at the facility now allow for the recycling of lighter-weight fabrics and clothes, yarns and textiles that are Flame Retardant, and those textile materials that use WaterWise™ color technology in their manufacturing.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Not only is the recycling of your business’ waste materials a smart way to cut down on waste disposal costs, but it also helps to create jobs and economic growth at recycling facilities. In addition, the materials you recycle go on to be sold and re-manufactured into other goods and products instead of ending up in a landfill where they don’t do anyone any good at all! When your business recycles you not only help the environment but you help your local and national economy as well. It’s a win win situation for everyone.

Recycling Textile Waste Helps Uniform Manufacturer

More than five million workers in the United States wear a uniform produced by Cintas, and now the world-wide garment manufacturer is collaborating with international not-for-profit group Know Hope to donate unused textiles to be recycled into bags and accessories sold to raise money for families living in impoverished and developing nations.

Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, Cintas Corporation will provide materials not used in the production of its uniforms to be used as lining in Know Hope’s reusable cloth bags. Funds from the sale of the bags go to help needy families in Haiti, Mexico, and Guatemala. Know Hope sold over four thousand three hundred bags and two thousand five hundred textile-based accessories in 2013.

The typical United States resident throws away close to seventy pounds of unwanted or outdated textiles each year, but for garment manufacturers the number of textiles disposed of in landfills is even higher. By partnering with Know Hope, Cintas can embrace its strategic plan of corporate sustainability, help developing communities, and reduce their disposal fees all at the same time.

Currently in the US, seventy five percent of textile waste generated by manufacturers is recycled, donated, or disposed of in an environmentally aware manner. The textile recycling industry in the US is responsible for close to seventeen thousand jobs.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Unwanted and unusable textiles are one of the easiest waste materials to recycle. Whether it’s donating clothing, towels, or linens that can be re-used by another or re-selling large quantities of scrap material for use in the production of new items such as carpets, furniture stuffing or insulation, disposing of textiles in a landfill is bad for the environment and your bottom line!

The Value Of Recycling Clothing

Clothing, fabrics, and textile-based materials are a part of our everyday lives. Whether it’s the clothes we wear or the bath towels and blankets we use or the drapes and carpets in our homes and offices, these are some of the simplest items to re-use or recycle. Even in less populated areas, there are community groups and social service agencies interested in obtaining your older clothing and linens for worthy purposes, so why dispose of these items in the trash when you can pass them along to groups or businesses that can put them to good use!

In most municipalities, textile waste is about five percent of all trash collected. That might not seem like very much, but collectively, throughout the United States, that’s over thirteen million tons of waste going to landfills. In 2011, only two million tons of textiles were donated or recycled.

If your business, town, or place of worship wants to make a difference in reducing waste, textile collection is a great place to start. One key point to remember as you plan your waste collection strategy is that all clothing and textiles must be kept dry – dampness can easily set in and render the clothing or materials unusable due to mold and mildew! Keeping collected items in plastic bags away in a dry location is the best way to ensure that your items can be re-used by others or re-manufactured into new goods and products.

In addition to gently used clothing being used to help those in need, unwanted textiles are also in demand by businesses to make products such as cleaning materials, high-end paper supplies, car insulation, padding for furniture, environmentally friendly construction materials and carpets.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: If your business is throwing unwanted or out-dated textiles into the trash, you’re also throwing precious dollar bills away as well! Take a look into textile recycling, re-sale or donation options and you’ll be saving green while going green!

 

Textile Recycling Hits Record High

Businesses and residents in New York City have recycled over one million pounds of waste textiles, including clothing, bed and bath linens, and kitchen accessories through the city’s specialized reuse program called re-fashioNYC.

A program is the result of a collaboration between the city’s Sanitation Department and the non-profit group Housing Works. The re-fashioNYC program started in the spring of 2011, and provides bins throughout the city where individuals and businesses can donate unwanted clothes, shoes, blankets, and other textiles.

All donations are processed through the Housing Works operations plant. Of the collected waste materials, close to half are resold in Housing Works Thrift Shops retail locations and the remainder are sold to manufacturers looking for recycled textile materials.

It is estimated that close to ten percent of all waste generated in the New York City area is textile materials that could be resold or recycled. The re-fashioNYC aims to lower that percentage by providing opportunities to recycle while contributing to the public good.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: When we think of recycling and waste reduction we often think of bottle and cans, paper and plastic. While textiles may not contribute as significantly to the overall waste stream, if you’re putting them in the trash then you’re paying to dispose of them! A savings of up to ten percent every month certainly adds up!

Community Launches New Recycling Program

City officials from the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania have formed a partnership with the textile recycler business, Community Recycling, to launch a new program for community residents and businesses to recycle unwanted textile goods that can be re-used such as shoes, clothes, bags and belts.

Community members will now have access to designated recycling bins throughout the borough to recycle and donate textiles. The collected items will be collected, cleaned, sorted, and distributed to social service agencies and organizations such as homeless shelters, food and clothing pantries, and welfare to work programs serving individuals and families in need.

City administrators from the department of sanitation and environmental protection see the new program as serving two goals. First, is to reduce the amount of waste materials being disposed of in area landfills and second is to help those in need by providing good quality clothes, linens, and shoes.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Textiles represent one of the “greenest” waste materials – they can be reused many times, used to create new textiles and other products, and are needed by all people around the world. If your business is putting textiles in the garbage, you are losing valuable dollars! Consider selling or donating those unwanted shoes, towels, shirts, dresses… you’ll be “going green” and making “green” at the same time!

Hotel Chain Waste Recycles Mattresses

The Hilton Worldwide Hotel Chain recently announced that it is launching a new material waste recycling program for mattresses when new beds and box springs are installed at its hotels.

The company has said that at on average, eighty five percent of the materials used in the manufacturing of the mattresses and box springs will be recycled and therefore diverted from landfills. The steel springs will be removed and sold as metal scrap for use in tools, construction materials, and automotive parts. Wood will be recycled for use in creating flooring, particle board for shelves and pressed wood furniture. The cotton material will be re-purposed to create new automobile oil filters and carpet padding.

The hotel chain, on average, purchases more than twenty five thousand mattresses per year for its United States locations. The new recycling program will help owners and managers to reduce material waste disposal fees while showing a commitment to environmentally sustainable practices.

Hilton is partnering with the DH Hospitality Group which has been contracted to facility all aspects of the mattress recycling program and will ensure that recycling centers are recycling the components and not engaged in reselling or recovering.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Many businesses, like Hilton Hotels, need to constantly update and refresh stock or materials to meet their customers expectations. What do you routinely throw in the dumpster that has monetary value on the reuse or recycling market? You might be surprised by what you’ll find!

Town Begins Textile Waste Recycling Program

The citizens of Queen Creek, Arizona understand the value of recycling clothes and the importance of keeping no longer wanted textiles out of the local landfill.

Earlier this Fall, the town decided to start a new waste recycling pilot program to encourage and increase textile material curbside recycling. The new initiative will allow the seven thousand residents of Queens Creek to recycle textiles such as clothing, shoes, towels, sheets, and blankets into a designated blue bag that would be placed in a bin with other recycling for regular pick-up. The textiles can be in any condition – even those that are ripped or soiled are acceptable.

The collected textile waste is then shipped to United Fibers an regional company that uses the fiber to make insulation. The pilot program is expected to run for four months and during that time monthly reporting will be available to gauge the effectiveness and participation rates of the recycling. For every pound of waste textiles collected the local Boys and Girls Club will receive ten cents. There is no additional fees imposed on the residents for the textile collection.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Is there a business in your community that could use your trash to make new products? Unique waste recycling partnerships like this one in Queens Creek can help to reduce landfill waste with bringing in funds for local services or non-profits!

Textile Waste Recycling In Philadelphia

Citizens in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania will soon be able to recycle unwanted and pre-owned textiles with a new curbside recycling program administered by textile recycling company Community Recycling and the hauling and waste disposal business, George Leck and Son.

In the business partnership between the two local companies, George Leck and Son will include textiles as part of its curbside recycling services for its customers and Community Recycling will purchase the clothes, handbags, shoes, belts, cloth, and other textile items.  Community Recycling then sorts and prepares the materials for resale, reuse, or recycling  to companies and manufacturers wanted recycled textiles throughout the United States and abroad.

According the Environmental Protection Agency, thirteen million tons of textile waste was produced last year. However, only two million tons of that was recycled – the rest was disposed of in landfills.

WasteCare Wants You to Remember: Innovation and partnerships are important to helping your business go green and save green. Take a look at what you routinely place in the trash – do you see an opportunity to move from waste disposal to waste recycling?