Trent University students sorting garbage for textile diversion research

A group of Trent University students has been up to their elbows in trash as part of a project to divert textiles and other materials from Peterborough’s landfill.

In October, city council asked the city’s waste management staff to find solutions to address textile waste. It led to them teaming up with Trent University’s environmental students for some rather foul-smelling research.

Since January, students have been sorting through the garbage of 200 households to study what’s being tossed away and items that can still be recycled.

“It’s interesting to see the types of waste that are coming in from the city,” said student Samantha Medeiros. “Food waste, a lot of textiles — things that can be re-used; things that can be recycled are making their way into garbage.”

Recent studies presented at the Markham Textile Symposium in November suggest textile waste has doubled since 2000 in Canada, and only about 16 per cent is being recycled or re-used.

“That means an estimated 650 to 1,200 tonnes of textile waste is being sent to landfill each year from our city alone,” said Laurie Westaway, an instructor of the Trent waste management course.

The class is going to help verify those numbers and try to determine ways to reduce and divert excess textile waste to help the city tackle a twofold problem: as the landfill increases in size, so do waste management costs.

“Textiles have become a big issue for municipal solid waste recently,” said Virginia Swinson, the city’s waste diversion section manager. “We have worked with Laurie in past on many things so it just seemed a natural fit for her third-year waste management class to do a bit of research for us.”

The class is also working on an online survey about clothing donation and recycling which was launched this week.

The research on textiles is expected to be presented to the city by April.