sandy l

Number 2 is high on my list of getting rid of fabric

Onebyone

Our guild has a free table and bags and boxes of scraps will sit on it rarely taken. Every one has more then they can use. It's given to Goodwill after two times on table. I volunteered to take the un gotten items to Goodwill one month. The employee who helped me unload said inside won't keep these cloth pieces, you want me to throw them away for you? I said I didn't know you didn't keep these. He said we don't keep a lot of things. Our dumpster is always full but I'm not suppose to refuse any donation. Inside will cull them out.

Iceblossom

Different stores and areas have different policies. It will help the fabric get out on the floor if it is large yardage or is already neatly in bags when donated. Those heavy plastic clear zippered bags that sheets and stuff come in are great for small scraps. I can imagine that if a box of assorted scraps comes in it does often get sent to the fabric recycle.

One of the Goodwills near me always has lots of fabric. Small pieces that no other store would sell separately are priced separately, they bag lots of stuff in to comic book sized bags as well. One of the other locations seemed to have a sudden shortage of fabric a few years ago, was talking to the clerks and they have a donation quilter that they just give the bags of scraps to, they don't even get out on the floor. Bummer for me, but good for the scraps getting used. At the Goodwill near my mom's house all the fabric is either bulk yardage or in the comic book sized bags. All I can say is the person who puts those packages knows what they are doing to make them appeal to a broad range of people! Nothing like sticking a non-quilting suitable piece of something to get people to buy them like putting it in with quilting suitable material.

mmunchkins

csstexas, I would worry that if the clothesline basket contains actual clothes that are wet, the bleeder fabric might bleed onto the clothes.

Mousie

I laughed at it too bc my nerves can be just like that, "I'm so sick of you!"
(whoda thunk a sweet little mousie could get sick of anything? lol, I have my
times ).

Onebyone

That would be the dumpster here. The county decided it cost too much to have recycle centers and the ones that were open rarely got anything to recycle. I think because it was almost 50 miles out and no one was driving over an hour round trip to recycle anything. A few of the larger cities have a recycle center but are very picky about what can be brought in. No glass at all and no colored paper and no plastic grocery/dept store bags. Tin cans and old tires are okay.

Iceblossom

Being the Seattle area, we are a bit environmentally concerned and we have a large population base with lots of people still moving in. But there needs to be a market and the transportation costs need to be factored in as well, and it is just not feasible for many places to do much with a lot of our leftovers. You also need to have the budget to put in processes/facilities/pay for people and that can be a hard sell in tough economic times.

Latest push here is a TV ad campaign reminding people to clean out their recyclable containers. Seems to me people wouldn't need a reminder that a partially full container of something isn't really recyclable yet but so it goes.

In my town, a working class suburb SE of Seattle proper, we have been part of a "test" project for about the last 5 years. I know it varies in different locales but here the towns negotiate the trash pick-up and the home-owner is required to pay for trash pick-up whether or not you use it. We have mandatory recycling if you live in a house, they can refuse to pick up your trash if it is full of recycling and you get a naughty notice, and then a $50 fine, and then they refuse to pick up your stuff if your recycling has trash in it. So we have one standard on-wheels "trash" can that is picked up every other week. Mostly what goes in there is stuff like plastic wrap. Yard waste gets picked up weekly, we are supposed to put all food tainted paper based things like pizza boxes in the yard waste, torn up a bit. We are also supposed to put all food related things like bones in the yard waste because we do have a super composter set up. Then all recyclable plastic, glass, cans, etc. go in one big bin that is picked up every other week along with trash and gets sorted after arrival at the local area processing plant where it is binned up and ready for industries who use the various things.

It's interesting to me to see some of the uses, like the foam used in couch cushions is largely made from soda bottles I think. Recently I got some fiber packing, small shreds in a sealed pouch instead of bubble wrap. I believe that can even be composted in a home compost pile once removed from the plastic.

Goodwill has a contract with the County and accepts dead appliances, old tvs and monitors, etc., you can't take electronics to the dump or put in your trash. Again, those items are broken down and hazardous wastes removed from the trash chain.

csstexas

Mmunchkins,
These baskets are not large enough for laundry. My basket used 100ft of 3/16th inch clothesline to make a basket that is 7 inches tall and 8.5inches in diameter. A guild member used twice that much and made a larger basket for her daughter to use for magazines.

Onebyone

Who checks every trash bin for these? Are they picked up by manually and each one gone through?

sewn3w

I do not permit shame of any sort in my sewing room. If I like it only to pet it then it stays. If I find any reason to pitch, out it goes. My local resale/goodwill/thrift shops do not sell any sewing related items. The local AWL refused homemade pet beds (! What?) I do save narrow long trimmings to use as colorful ties vs twine or rubber bands.