The Bristol Town Council urged residents during its Oct. 3 meeting to give second thoughts to throwing out unwanted clothing, shoes, toys and other textiles as the Pink Bag Project recycling initiative officially rolls out Oct. 29.

Spearheaded by Councilwoman Mary Parella, the town joins Simple Recycling’s nationwide movement to reduce the amount and weight of trash taking up space in America’s landfills.

With 14.3 million tons of clothing making its way into the garbage each year, Bristol community members can be a part of the change by now discarding any of those items into a pink bag that will be picked up by Simple Recycling during the normal trash route. All the items collected will be assessed and redistributed to either second-hand stores, markets overseas or reprocessed.

“It reduces the number of heavy items that end up in the waste stream, ultimately reducing the tonnage that is taken to the Central Landfill and dumped at a tipping fee of $47 per ton,” said Ms. Parella.

All Town Council members were on board with the program, which is free for the community to join. After waiting several months for a distribution center in Taunton, Mass., to be completed, they’re more than ready to get it underway and start seeing results in Bristol.

“I think this is a fantastic initiative; it’s a way of being greener and saving tax dollars, so it’s a win-win,” said Vice Chairman Timothy Sweeney.

“We’re very proud to get this going,” added Councilman Edward Stuart. “We have a trash problem here in Bristol, so every little bit helps.”

More information will be sent out via postcards to all residents next week. Simple Recycling will then send out initial pink bags the following week in preparation for the program’s start at the end of the month.

Ms. Parella did encourage those who already donate items to organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters and Goodwill to maintain those established relationships moving forward.