City of Brandon Participating in National Textile Diversion Program


November 29, 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Brandon, MB – The City of Brandon is encouraging community members to think twice before throwing that stretched-out sweater, ripped pair of jeans, hole-y single sock, or even that well-worn plush toy into the trash and, instead, consider dropping it off at a textile diversion depot to be recycled, re-used or re-purposed.

Brandon is one of more than 160 municipalities across Canada currently participating in a national research and textile diversion pilot program led by Diabetes Canada and York University, the main goal of which will be to identify economic, social, and environmental impacts of textile diversion for municipalities. Brandon’s role as a participating municipality will be to educate the public on what to do with their textiles and the environmental impacts associated with throwing out textiles.

City of Brandon Environmental Initiatives Coordinator Lindsay Hargreaves notes that of the 1.4 million kilograms of textiles that are purchased by Brandon consumers each year, a total of 85% of it ends up in the landfill. To combat this, municipally-branded textile diversion bins have been set up on the Keystone Centre grounds (southeast corner), at the East End Community Centre, and in Kin Park and Rideau Park, where people are encouraged to drop off unwanted old clothing, plush toys, blankets, and other textiles. Hargreaves says that the community should be applauded for its participation thus far, noting that in the first two weeks of the program, nearly 500 pounds of textiles were collected at the four depot sites.

“From start to finish, it takes a total of 1,800 gallons to manufacture one pair of jeans, and 700 gallons of water to make a single cotton t-shirt,” says Hargreaves. “While the global textile industry has become increasingly influenced by the concept of ‘fast fashion’, we can work to change our behaviours as consumers by donating our unwanted clothing instead of throwing them in our refuse or recycling bins.”

Hargreaves says the City of Brandon will be a participant in the national research and textile diversion pilot program for the next two years, after which longer-term local program options will be considered. In addition to accessing the four municipal bin locations, Hargreaves encourages residents to donate any unwanted textiles to Brandon’s charity thrift stores and to consider shopping at such thrift stores instead of buying new.

More information about Brandon’s Textile Diversion Pilot Program can be found online at www.brandonenvironment.ca.