Mountain of Clothes Comes to Santa Monica |

Fri December 5, 2014

santa-monica mountain of clothes

Read the original story on patch.com

USAgain (pronounced use-again), the City of Santa Monica contracted textile recycling company, will build a “mountain” of clothing and textiles- the equivalent of one full garbage truck or 10,000 pounds of clothing -to demonstrate the impact of clothing that gets discarded in the trash and the need to conserve landfill space at the Winter Repair Café hosted by the Resource Recovery & Recycling Division and 1450 Ocean on December 13th.

“This “mountain” illustrates just how much space discarded clothing, shoes and other textiles take up when we throw them into the trash and it eventually ends up in landfills,” said USAgain CEO Mattias Wallander. “Unfortunately, 12 million tons of textiles get buried in landfills each year.”

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, Americans throw away 85 percent of all of their unwanted clothing and shoes into the trash. While recycling household items, like paper, bottles and cans, has become second nature to many Americans, many still do not realize that clothing can be recycled too.

USAgain’s mission is to reduce the negative impacts of clothes and shoes on our environment by increasing their reuse and recycling. USAgain gives a new life to discarded clothing by putting them back in the use stream as second hand clothing. Clothes that are not in condition to be re-worn are shredded to make new material like insulation for homes and the car industry or to reclaim fiber to make new fabric.

The Repair Café focuses on repair and reuse as part of the City’s Zero Waste Strategic Plan and the addition of UsAgain is a perfect merger. We throw away an incredible amount of stuff everyday - but imagine extending the life of your items at little to no cost! Saving used items from landfills is key to reducing our waste.

Bring torn clothes, books, broken furniture, electrical appliances, bicycles, computers, and toys. The Repair Café Fixers are experienced electricians, seamstresses, carpenters, and more. They will offer instruction, tools and materials to fix what you need repaired.

For more information: Visit www.smgov.net/r3 or visit us on Facebook www.facebook.com/SantaMonicaRRR.