Oyster Bay law would require permits, restrict sites for clothing donation bins

Dropoff bins for used clothing in Oyster Bay would require town permits and be restricted to charitable organizations and certain areas under a proposed local law.

The town’s proposal would restrict areas where the bins could be placed to those zoned “Light Industry,” “General Business” or on property owned by a nonprofit regardless of zoning. A hearing on the law is scheduled for Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Town Hall.

While one local charity said the proposed ordinance would help eliminate confusion caused by rogue operators, a national textile recycling trade group opposes it, arguing it could reduce an already low rate of recycling.

Americans recycled 2.57 million tons of textiles in 2017 while 11.15 million tons ended up in landfills, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Islandia-based Big Brothers Big Sisters of Long Island relies on donated clothing to fund programs that serve more than 500 children, said Helen Liriano, the nonprofit’s chief financial officer.

“The clothing business represents anywhere from 60 to 70 percent [of BBBSLI’s revenue],” Liriano said. “It’s a big chunk for us.”

The organization collected more than 14 million pounds of clothes in 2019, Liriano said. It sells the collected clothing to another company and uses the proceeds for its programs. One online exchange, recycle.net, lists per pound prices for used clothing from 4 cents to $1.50.

Maryland-based Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association, an industry group representing for-profit companies, estimates that 45% of collected clothing is resold, 30% is cut into rags used for industrial purposes, 20% is shredded and turned into padding or insulation and 5% is unusable.

Liriano said the proposed law would cut back on bad operators. 

“People have been burned by bins that are just popping up,” Liriano said. “People are trying to make money and advertising them as donations going somewhere, when it isn’t.”

Jackie King, executive director of Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association, said Oyster Bay’s proposed law would be “detrimental from an environmental perspective.”

“To just limit collections to charities defeats the whole purpose of trying to keep this stuff out of the landfill,” King said. “The more points you have for people to take their clothing to be reused or recycled, the less that’s going to end up in a landfill.”

In a Feb. 19 letter, King urged the town board to revise the proposal.

New York State law requires clothing collection bins to be labeled with the owner’s name, address and phone number and must identify whether the donated materials will go to charitable purposes or for-profit. 

The proposed restriction on locations appears to prohibit two of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Long Island’s six collection bins in unincorporated parts of Oyster Bay because they are in areas zoned for “Neighborhood Business.”

In an email, Liriano wrote that, “We would hope the town considers allowing nonprofits to place bins with business partners in all zones.”

In response to the issues raised by King and Liriano, town spokesman Brian Nevin wrote in an email Wednesday: “This law was drafted to protect neighborhoods from blight, stop the proliferation of unlicensed collection bins, and protect our suburban quality of life.”