George Washington University, American University and Georgia State are among the eight universities that have joined Community Recycling Campus’ Reuse Movement and expect to generate some 1.9 million pounds of reusable clothes and goods as students move off campus for the summer.
Community Recycling, a for-profit textile recycler, says the other five schools to sign on to its campus recycling initiative are Elizabeth City State University, Montclair State University, Temple University and Rider University. Together the eight universities enroll more than 127,400 students.
Community Recycling estimates each student will have at least 15 pounds of unwanted clothes and other things that can be recovered and reused — keeping millions of pounds of textiles out of landfills.
George Washington University expects its Green Move Out Day to surpass last year’s 90,000 pounds of clothing, shoes and bedding that the school collected for recycling and reuse.
Community Recycling says, according to the EPA, every US resident throws away about 70 pounds of clothing each year.
The 523 colleges and universities participating in March’s RecycleMania Tournament — meant to harness the competitive spirit around sports rivalries and use them to increase campus recycling and waste reduction — collectively recovered 90.3 million pounds of recyclables and organic materials between the beginning of February and the end of March.
In February, The North Face launched a pilot clothing take-back/recycling program called Clothes the Loop, aimed at keeping billions of pounds of apparel and footwear out of landfills. H&M started a similar program the same month that allows H&M customers to donate used clothing at all stores in the chain’s 48 markets worldwide. I:Co then repurposes the collected clothes, and customers will receive a voucher for each bag of clothing they donate.