Penrith City Council is inviting residents to spring-clean for a good cause at its third annual Clothing and Textile Recycling Drop-off Event on Saturday 19 September at The Kingsway Playing Fields, Werrington, from 9am to 3:30pm.
The free, drive-through event gives residents a practical way to responsibly retire clothing and household textiles that are past their best - items that would otherwise take hundreds of years to break down in landfill.
Last year's event was Council's largest to date, with 330 vehicles dropping off more than 7 tonnes of clothing and textiles - a 94.6 per cent increase in attendance from the 2023 event. Twenty-one per cent of participants said the items would have otherwise been placed in their red-lidded bin going to landfill.
Penrith Mayor Todd Carney said the event was a chance to keep useful material in circulation.
"Australians buy more clothes per person than any other country in the world and much of it ends up in landfill within a couple of seasons," Cr Carney said.
"This event gives Penrith residents an easy, free way to keep those materials in the loop. It's also a reminder that if something is still wearable, the best thing to do is pass it on to a neighbour, a charity or an op-shop first."
All collected items will be sorted and processed by Textile Recyclers Australia (TRA), a Penrith-based social enterprise. Brand-new items with tags will be donated to The Haven - Nepean Women's Shelter and WestCare Community Services.
Accepted items include clean and dry clothing, shoes in pairs, hats, belts, handbags, sheets, towels, doonas, blankets, sleeping bags and curtains (with hooks and eyelets removed). Underwear, swimwear, wet or mouldy items, pet bedding, latex or memory foam pillows and electricals cannot be accepted.
Residents are asked to pack items in the boot, drive in via the car park off The Kingsway, follow the signage and remain in their vehicle while staff unload the items.
For a full list of accepted and non-accepted items, visit penrith.city/textiledropoff.
