New Mattress/clothing laws (Burlington: transfer, schools, roofing)

[mdovell]

https://www.masslive.com/news/2022/1...ins-nov-1.html

Now I knew about this with mattress going back and I get it. But clothing is going to put this in an odd spot. Many places don't want textiles period. I have no idea if non profits have the ability to deal with this. Just because something looks OK doesn't mean a non profit is going to think it is able to be sold. I have a feeling we're going to see facebook and craigslist swamped with people giving away clothing. Not sure if this is a good or bad thing

[L00k4ward]

Originally Posted by mdovell

https://www.masslive.com/news/2022/1...ins-nov-1.html

Now I knew about this with mattress going back and I get it. But clothing is going to put this in an odd spot. Many places don't want textiles period. I have no idea if non profits have the ability to deal with this. Just because something looks OK doesn't mean a non profit is going to think it is able to be sold. I have a feeling we're going to see facebook and craigslist swamped with people giving away clothing. Not sure if this is a good or bad thing

Before some people get all upset:

Looks like they have facilities to take it in the state. From your link:

“… a robust and extensive reuse and recycling infrastructure is in place to handle these materials,” regulators wrote in background documents for the regulations, adding there are more than 25 textile reuse and recycling operations in the state, and more than one-half of communities collect textiles for reuse and recycling.”

“Textiles that can’t be reused, like clothing with stains or tears, can serve as industrial wiping cloths, insulation, carpet padding, or soundproofing, DEP said.”

“Due to these reuse and recycling options, textiles typically have value when collected, and diverting these materials from the trash lowers trash disposal costs.

“The ban, scheduled to begin Nov. 1, encompasses clothing, footwear, bedding, towels, curtains, fabric, and similar products — though it excludes anything that has been contaminated with mold, bodily fluids, insects, oil, or hazardous substances, according to regulations”

[simplexsimon]

Originally Posted by mdovell

https://www.masslive.com/news/2022/1...ins-nov-1.html

Now I knew about this with mattress going back and I get it. But clothing is going to put this in an odd spot. Many places don't want textiles period. I have no idea if non profits have the ability to deal with this. Just because something looks OK doesn't mean a non profit is going to think it is able to be sold. I have a feeling we're going to see facebook and craigslist swamped with people giving away clothing. Not sure if this is a good or bad thing

Goodwill and Savers don't look at individual clothing items before taking the donation so I assume they have a process. They don't allow trash to begin with, but during the early days of the pandemic way more people treated them like the dump.

What do you believe will be the negative outcome of this and how it might weight against the positives of reduced waste?

[robr2]

Many cities and towns have a textile recycling program. Here in Burlington, we've had bins outside of the schools to drop off textiles not worth donating.

[yesmaybe]

Recycling clothes sounds gross. Recycling mattresses sounds gross too but maybe you could salvage the box springs.

[matrix5k]

How exactly will this be enforced? I imagine many people won't even be aware and put mattresses on the street anyway, and clothes/fabric in the trash can.

[porterhouse]

Even if people are aware, many (most?) are still going throw clothing, etc. in the trash.

[Boston_Burbs]

Alot of transfer stations have clothes recycling drop off containers.

[mdovell]

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/ar...lothes-anymore


generally recycling was the idea of just shipping it to asia and they'd deal with. Yeah that isn't happening. I see alot of a dumping and then we're going to see fines and then it's just going to get ugly. Look at the composting in nyc.

Generally if you tell the public to do something that's fine as long as there's the means to do so. You want to mandate recycling? ok fine give me curbside recycling (which I have). What you don't want is a mandate and then no enforcement or penalty and then wonder why things didn't change.

[robr2]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

Recycling clothes sounds gross. Recycling mattresses sounds gross too but maybe you could salvage the box springs.

It takes less than 5 minutes for a mattress to be broken down into it's components and just about all of it is recycled:

fabric cover - gets washed along with with other materials and then cut into strips for rags or processed into new fabric

foam - cleaned and then reused in new foam or other products

metal coils - recycled into new steel products

wood - chipped and reused as new lumber products.