Simple Recycling Comes to Natick

Pink bags have been dotting the sidewalks in front of Natick homes on trash and recycling days. These donations are a part of a new program through the organization Simple Recycling, a multi-state effort to reduce the waste stream and reuse or repurpose items. The program has multiple benefits, including an easy way for residents to make environmentally-friendly choices and an additional income stream for the town.
Alternative Advantages
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average U.S. resident tosses 81 pounds of textiles (including clothing, rags, carpeting, shoes, and similar items) per year. On a national scale, this translates to 13 million tons of material being dumped into a landfill or incinerated, yet, 85% of used textiles have value.
Keith Perhacs, Program Launch Coordinator at Simple Recycling, explained, “Simple Recycling was founded to reduce the harmful impact of textile waste and have a positive impact on the environment, people, and communities associated with our free collection program.”
The company pays $20 per ton for all bags collected from residents. This is a beneficial trade-off as cities and towns would normally pay to dispose of these items while they could be paid to salvage them instead.
Instead of remaining un-decomposed in landfills or adding toxins into the atmosphere through incineration, textiles are donated to thrift stores, exported to international markets, or are used for their raw materials.
Working with Natick
Simple Recycling is based in Solon, Ohio, and is now active in Massachusetts. Sonny Wilkins, Vice President of Municipal Relations, noted that the company’s local facility is in the city of Woburn.
“We currently service over 75 municipalities across 6 states, and our program reaches 4 million residents,” Wilkins said. The town of Natick held discussions with Simple Recycling in January 2017, and began collaborating with the organization in the spring.
“The benefit is that we will keep these materials from entering the waste stream and that will help keep tipping fees down,” Tom Hladick, Natick Highway and Sanitation Supervisor, said.
“We have signed a three year contract, and if the program is doing well at the end of that term, I am sure we would be looking to extend it.”
How to Donate
Though textiles do not have to be in a new or resale condition, they should be dry and scentless. Clothing and accessories, kitchenware and appliances, home goods, and miscellaneous items such as tools, toys, books and pictures may be included as well.
Perhacs added that Simple Recycling drivers provide replacement bags while they make their pickup rounds. “Bags will either be tied to the handle of the refuse container or secured near a front or side porch where the bags will not blow away,” he said.
If residents need more bags, they can be requested at any time by calling 886-835-5068, or by emailing info@simplerecycling.com.
To learn more about Simple Recycling, visit www.simplerecycling.com. For more details about how to use Simple Recycling in Natick, visit www.natickma.gov/1469/Pink-Bag---imple-Recycling-Curbside-Col.