Thanks to your support in 2020, we were able to donate $125,000 to Canadian registered charities.

A Fun Idea That’s Good for The Environment – Clothing Swaps!

shutterstock_107113352We are proud textile recyclers but as an environmental company, we recognize that reusing textiles uses much less resources than recycling. In fact, if all 35 million Canadians reused  just one t-shirt, it would save 92.7 billion litres of water! With this in mind, we work with grading facilities that prioritize reuse in their product management process.

The best quality items are reused locally. Gently used items are exported affordably to third world countries that lack a domestic clothing supply.

Our efforts in green technology textile processing, is for waste that has no use in the reuse sector. The majority of what we collect and transfer is reused either here or abroad.

If you follow us on Twitter or Facebook, we often post DIY tips on how to repurpose old clothes and textiles in order to encourage maximizing the lifespan of textiles before they even get to us.

A new trend we are hearing about is Clothing Swaps. Clothing Swaps are fun and practical social events where people gather with all their used clothing/textiles. Often tables are set up much like you would expect at a craft fair. The only difference is, no money is exchanged!

Basically, the idea is that once you drop it on the table, it’s no longer yours. You are then free to shop around other tables and take what you like.

At the end of the event, whatever is not used, is bagged up and dropped in the nearest reputable clothing donation bin by event organizers.

In these frugal times, clothing swaps help people refresh their wardrobes for free as well as raise necessary donations for charities that benefit from used clothing collection. These events are not only fun bonding experience between community members, but also feel good knowing you are helping charities and the environment at the same time.

If you have 50 bags or more left over, we will even come pick them up for free! To find out where the closest bin we service is to your event, to order a bin for your property or to schedule a 50 bag or more pick-up, call us at 888-980-8756.

Together we are building a community driven, green future!

20200

Packaging and trash

Out of every $10 spent buying things, $1 (10%) goes for packaging that is thrown away. Packaging represents about 65% of household trash.

 

Save the trees

If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25,000,000 trees a year.

 

In the bin!

Used aluminum beverage cans are the most recycled item in the U.S., but other types of aluminum, such as siding, gutters, car components, storm window frames, and lawn furniture can also be recycled.

 

Kiss this!

An estimated 80,000,000 Hershey's Kisses are wrapped each day, using enough aluminum foil to cover over 50 acres of space -- that's almost 40 football fields. All that foil is recyclable, but not many people realize it.

Packaging at the dump

About one-third of an average garbage dump is made up of packaging material!

Glass skyscrapers?

Every month, we throw out enough glass bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper. All of these jars are recyclable!

Plastic bottles by the hour

Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour! Most of them are thrown away!

The Sunday paper

To produce each week's Sunday newspapers, 500,000 trees must be cut down.

The aluminum recycling loop

A used aluminum can is recycled and back on the grocery shelf as a new can in as little as 60 days. That's closed loop recycling at its finest!

 

What gets recycled in Canada?

By weight, organics comprise the largest portion, accounting for 22% of recycled materials from all sources, followed by newsprint (17%) and cardboard and boxboard (17%).

Recycling by the Province

While on the rise overall, recycling varies quite widely from province to province. Ontario and Quebec recycle the largest quantities of materials, but the amounts of material recycled per person and the recycling rate are higher in Nova Scotia and British Columbia.

Canadian vs. American residential waste

Canadians produced 366 kg per person of residential waste in 2020; by 2020, this figure had increased to 418 kg per person. By way of comparison, residential waste production by our neighbours in the United States was 440 kg per person in 2020.

   

Canadian waste

In 2020, Canadian households produced 13.4 million tonnes of waste. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of this waste was sent for disposal, according to Statistics Canada’s 2020 Waste Management Survey, while the rest was recycled.

A great reason to recycle!

Landfills produce approximately 25% of Canada’s methane emissions (methane is a powerful greenhouse gas). Recycling, including textile recycling, can help reduce the amount of waste entering landfills and help conserve natural resources.

How much water do ice caps and glaciers hold?

The amount of water locked up in ice and snow is only about 1.7 percent of all water on Earth, but the majority of total freshwater on Earth, about 68.7%, is held in ice caps and glaciers.

How much recyclable material gets thrown away?

Paper is the number one recyclable material that we throw away. For every 100 pounds of trash we throw away, 35 pounds is paper. Americans throw away 25 billion Styrofoam coffee cups every year, 40 billion soft drink cans and bottles every year, and 38 billion plastic bags. Placed end to end, they would reach to the moon and back hundreds of times.

 

How much household waste can be recycled?

Over 80% of typical household waste - including food scraps, yard waste, paper, cardboard, cans, and bottles - can be recycled, reused, or composted.

How much carbon dioxide can a car emit?

On average, a car produces about 170g CO2 per kilometer. If your car travels 2020 kilometers per month, it produces about 340 kilograms CO2 - that's a lot of carbon dioxide!

How much harm can one styrofoam cup do?

A styrofoam cup contains one billion billion CFC molecules - a class of chemical compounds that deplete ozone. Once a CFC molecule reaches the ozone layer, it can take over 100 years before it breaks up and becomes harmless!

How many trees are cut down each year?

In 2020 statistics, primary forest area was reduced globally by 60,000 square km per year (about the size of Ireland). While it's impossible to get an exact count, at a rate of 50K to 100K trees per square km, this equates to 3 to 6 billion trees per year.

Worldwide Metals Production

Between 2020 and 2020, worldwide metals production grew sixfold, oil consumption eightfold, and natural gas consumption 14-fold. In total, 60 billion tons of resources are now extracted annually—about 50% more than just 30 years ago. Today the average European uses 43 kilograms of resources daily, and the average American uses 88 kilograms.