Marlborough Now Offering Free Textile Recycling

MARLBOROUGH, MA — If you have an old backpack or a pile of threadbare T-shirts piled up in your house, now you have a way to get rid of them.

Marlborough has kicked off a pilot program offering a textile drop-off site for city residents. The collection point will be located at the city's public works parking lot, and will accept a huge range of items: linens, jackets, suits, gloves, handbags, footwear, blankets and more.

Many communities in Massachusetts are starting to offer textile recycling to residents following a new state rule banning those items from being thrown in the regular trash. That rule went into effect in November.

"According to the MassDEP, every year Massachusetts residents throw away about 230,000 tons of usable textiles. Ninety-five percent of this material can be reused as clothing or re purposed into other materials like rags or cloths," Marlborough said in a news release this week.

Marlborough's pilot program will be run by Planet Aid, a nonprofit that collects textiles either to recycle the items or to sell them to overseas sellers and thrift stores.

City residents can visit Marlborough's yellow Planet Aid box at the DPW parking lot at 135 Neil St.