City of Markham Wins National Environmental Award

The City of Markham has received national recognition for its Textile Recycling Program from the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (CAMA). The City was presented with the 2017 CAMA Environmental Award, in the over 100,000 population category, during CAMA’s national conference in Gatineau, Quebec.

“CAMA is pleased to recognize the environmental excellence demonstrated by Markham for their textile diversion strategy,” said Marie-Hélène Lajoie, president of the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators and City Manager for Gatineau, Quebec. “This is an aggressive textile recycling program designed not only to divert such waste from the landfill, but to track as much textile waste as possible.”

While most municipalities are focused on recycling programs for electronics, cans and paper, the carbon footprint from discarded textiles is growing. While donation bins were in place, research indicated residents were uninformed about textile recycling. Markham wanted to raise awareness for the global environmental impact of textiles and encourage Canadian municipalities to divert textile material.

With funding support from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) in 2015, Markham developed a new textile recycling program. This included an innovative bylaw – the toughest in North America – that came into effect April 2017 and banned the placement of textiles in the garbage. It is expected to increase overall waste diversion by up to an additional 5 per cent and achieve annual savings of over $86,000 in avoided collection and landfill fees.

Partnering with well-established organizations in textile diversion – The Salvation Army Thrift Store and Diabetes Canada – seventy seven Markham branded SMART donation bins have been deployed across the city at various locations, including city facilities, recycling depots, community centres, and multi-residential buildings, making it convenient for residents to drop off reusable clothing and old ragged textiles. State-of-art “volume sensors” have been affixed inside each public container to provide for off-site monitoring by staff and diversion data. The major impacts of this project are in benefits to the community, local employment, and the broader textile and clothing sector.

“Markham has a long standing record of being a national leader in local sustainability programs and initiatives to reduce the impact of climate change and to support a healthier community,” said Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti. “This award is another great achievement for our Waste Management department, and staff are to be congratulated for their continued commitment to excellence. I would also like to thank our residents, whose commitment to the environment speaks volumes through the success of this initiative.”

CAMA’s Environment Award recognizes the commitment of a municipality to environmentally sustainable governance, to protecting the environment and to combating climate change. Awards are granted to programs, projects or services that have made a significant and positive impact on the environment. Since Canada has a unique mixture of small and large communities, awards are granted according to population – for municipalities under 20,000, for those between 20,001 and 100,000 and for those over 100,000.

In less than one year since the Textile Program first launched, the City of Markham has turned 2,735,116 million pounds (1,240,628 kilograms) of possible trash into donations. Items that cannot be reused or re-worn will be recycled into new products, such as rags, paper, insulation or shredded down for stuffing or fiber recycling. Items in good condition will be sold at thrift stores, diverting unnecessary waste from landfills, saving natural resources and helping to generate funds and jobs to help those in need.

For more information:

Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti: mayorscarpitti@markham.ca or 905.475.4872.
Media inquiries / interview requests: Corporate Communications & Community Engagement Department at media@markham.ca or 905.415.7548.