Local clothing recycler USAgain is proud to announce that Riverview School in Silver Lake has won third position in 2015 America Recycles Day Challenge for schools.
America Recycles Day Challenge is USAgain’s annual clothing recycling competition. Participating schools collected clothing and household textiles in a USAgain recycling bin located on the school grounds.
Riverview Elementary school won the third prize of $50. The first place winner is Gwen T. Jackson Early Childhood and Elementary in Milwaukee, and Smith Elementary in Oshkosh finished second.
Andrea Zackery, Riverview principal, said “USAgain’s recycle program has been a rewarding endeavor that Riverview will continue. It provides the community and our staff an easy way to recycle unwanted clothing and textiles which in turn makes a positive impact on the environment.”
The competition ran from Oct. 15 to Nov. 15, culminating with America Recycles Day. At the end of the competition, clothing is weighed and all participants receive a cash prize based on total pounds.
“This friendly challenge encourages students to learn more about recycling and its impacts,” said USAgain CEO, Mattias Wallander. “Reusing and recycling resources is one of the easiest and most rewarding ways to reduce your carbon footprint.” A recent EPA study shows that the impact of clothing recycling, which averages at 15 percent nationwide, is equivalent to taking one million cars off the road for a year. Imagine the positive impact if we are able to recycle the remaining 85 percent (12 million tons) of textiles that are currently going into landfills ”
Together, 1,300 pounds of clothes were collected, which helped prevent 19,500 pounds of carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere.
The items in good condition are reused as secondhand clothing and the rest are recycled to manufacture insulation material, wiping rags etc.
USAgain is a for-profit company with a mission of diverting textiles from landfills.
