Clothing and Textile Recovery

Do you have clothing, shoes, or other textiles that you no longer wear or use, but still have plenty of life left in them? Don't throw them away!

Donate them to an organization that will find new owners or uses for these items. Search the MassDEP-supported Beyond the Bin Recycling Directory by type of material and your location. It will display a list of nearby locations where you can drop off unwanted clothing, shoes, and other textiles for donation to organizations that will resell, reuse, recycle, or repurpose them.

Across Massachusetts:

• Residents and businesses dispose of approximately 230,000 tons of textiles annually.
• More than five percent of the waste delivered to combustion facilities is made up of clothing, curtains, towels, and other fabrics.
• About 85 percent of the textiles currently being thrown away could be donated, reused, or recycled instead.

The infographic below illustrates what a waste this truly represents.

Infographic courtesy of Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles (SMART)®

See Additional Resources below to learn more.

Effective November 1, 2022: Textiles are banned from disposal or transport for disposal in Massachusetts.

The MassDEP Mattress & Textile Waste Ban Communications Toolkit provides a library of images, materials, strategies, and tips you can use to get the word out about this change to the residents of your community.

For waste disposal ban purposes, textiles are defined as bedding, clothing, curtains, fabric, footwear, towels, and similar items. Virtually any textile can be reused, repurposed, or recycled if clean and dry. Even worn, torn, and stained items have recovery value.

Certain contaminated textiles are exempt from the disposal ban. For definitions, see the regulations.

Learn about your city or town's responsibilities for complying with the new provisions and companies that provide textile collection services in Additional Resources below.

While it is better for residents to donate clothing, shoes, and other textiles for reuse and resale rather than throw them away, towns and cities are encountering a couple of common problems with unattended donation containers:

• People dropping off any and all unwanted items, not just textiles - even leaving them outside containers, creating eyesores and attracting pests; and
• Resident confusion over whether containers are maintained by charitable organizations or for-profit businesses.

Learn how some Massachusetts communities are addressing these issues through the adoption of local by-laws and regulations. See examples in Additional Resources below.