You have probably noticed the huge red Wolfie Clothing Recycling Bins located near each residential quadrant on campus. At the end of the semester when students move out of dorms, you may have even passed one of these bins overflowing with clothes.
Based on the bins alone, the printed text on the front reads that they accept clothing, shoes, belts, handbags, hats, linens, towels and curtains. The Wolfie Clothing Recycling Bins were first introduced in 2010 “to promote pride and encourage people to think and act green.” But, a question still remains: what happens to these items once disposed into the bin?
Every year, New York State residents and businesses discard an estimated 1.4 billion pounds of textiles that often end up in landfills or incinerators. Not only is this practice wasteful, but it also creates long-term environmental consequences, since it takes over 200 years for these materials to decompose in landfills — emitting the greenhouse gas methane. Jason Kibbey, former chief executive officer (CEO) of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, told Newsweek that the chemicals from bleaching, dying and printing natural fibers can leach from textiles into groundwater or release into the air from incineration.
Given the environmental impacts of discarded clothing, the University’s clothing recycling program is commendable. But exposés of clothing recycling bins run by money-hungry companies can instill doubt in those participating in these recycling initiatives. Stony Brook’s Wolfie Clothing Recycling Bins can cause wariness given the lack of information online provided by administration on the bin collection process or collectors.
The Statesman had the opportunity to obtain email responses from Stony Brook officials in the Office of Sustainability and the Department of Campus Operations & Maintenance. According to the email, the donated clothing in the bins are “collected approximately every two to three weeks by our partners at Wearable Collections.”
Wearable Collections is a for-profit waste management company specializing in diverting textile waste from landfills in New York City. Their website reports that they transport clothes to a sorting facility where they assess the conditions of the clothing items.
“Wearable Collections utilizes the University truck scale to weigh the amount of clothing donated [to] the Red Wolfie Clothing Bins across campus and is then able to give our teams data,” Stony Brook officials said.
The email also said that the University has collected donations for over 20 year but only started formally tracking recycled clothing in 2008. Stony Brook allegedly worked with a different vendor to collect clothing before partnering with Wearable Collections to install the bins in 2010.
According to Stony Brook officials, since the installation of Wolfie Clothing Recycling Bins, the University has collected between 9 to 17 tons of clothing per school year, excluding the 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years where the data was combined with other recyclable data. Excluding those two years, the average amount of clothing recycled per school year is 13.7 tons, which is equivalent to nearly 30,000 pounds.
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