Reminder: Simple Recycling to Start Curbside Pickup of Textiles in November

The Department of Public Works will be rolling out a new curbside textile pickup program in November that will allow you to recycle used clothing and household items.

The curbside program will be run by Simple Recycling, which currently does textile recycling in several other communities, including Somerville, Medford, and Brookline. They will start the program by sending two pink donation bags to each house in Melrose. Residents can place clothing, jewelry, shoes, purses, hats, blankets, sleeping bags, tools, pots, pans, dishes, silverware, and pillows into the bags and leave them curbside for pickup with their regular trash. The Simple Recycling driver follows the trash routes, picks up the bags, and leaves a new bag for each one picked up. If a pickup is missed or a resident wants more bags, they can call Simple Recycling directly.

The program will cost the City of Melrose nothing, and in fact, Simple Recycling will pay the city $20 for each ton of material collected. Simple Recycling sorts the collected items by quality and condition and resells the best items to local thrift outlets. Mid-grade items go to international markets, and unusable items are processed for raw materials. Because Simple Recycling is not a nonprofit, residents will not get a tax receipt as they would for a donation.

A mailer explaining the program will go out by the end of September, followed by another mailer a few weeks later that will be accompanied by the first two pink bags. The first curbside textile pickup is scheduled for November 4.

The Simple Recycling program was reviewed by the Zero Waste Committee (formerly the Recycling Committee). This program does not replace the white clothing dropoff bins at the elementary schools, which benefit the PTOs. The mailer will note that this pickup service is an addition to those dropoff boxes.

I hope that this program is welcomed by the community and will be a useful addition to the options that are currently available.