LETHBRIDGE, AB – You’re being encouraged to try to curb textile waste as we head in the holiday season.
Textiles are items like clothing, linens, and even stuffed toys that end up in the garbage. They clog up the landfill because they can’t be recycled and don’t break down.
Kathleen Sheppard is the Executive Director for Environment Lethbridge.
She says, try to be mindful of that with Christmas approaching, adding “do you need an ugly sweater that you’ll only wear once? And what happens to it when you don’t want it anymore?”
Caring for your clothes is one of the top tips recommended by Environment Lethbridge’s Wasteless website as wear and stains are one of the main reasons textiles are thrown away. Buying quality items also ensures that clothing and linens last longer, but one of the main questions people should ask, is whether they need new items in the first place.
Sheppard says in Lethbridge, over a thousand tonnes of textiles are thrown into the trash every year on average. That equates to about 65 t-shirts for every single resident.