Starkville, Mississippi, has moved to the forefront of textile recycling efforts in the state through a municipal partnership with a secondhand retailer. All it took was an idea heard by the city's sanitation chief at an industry conference.

According to local media reports, since the donation and recycling program established by Starkville and America's Thrift Stores launched at the city's Think Green Recycling Center last August, residents have donated a cumulative total of more than 18,216 pounds (about 8.3 tons) of used clothing, shoes, books, and household goods that are still usable. Instead of being sent to landfills, these items have their lifespan extended through America's Thrift Stores and support charities including Make-A-Wish.

Chris Smiley, director of Starkville's Sanitation and Environmental Services Department, learned about the model at a regional conference held last year in the Mississippi Gulf Coast area. At the time, representatives from America's Thrift Stores explained at the conference that communities in states including Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Texas were partnering with the organization to place collection bins at municipal recycling centers and divert reusable items from landfills. The program already has a mature track record in the Southeast and is expanding into Mississippi through America's Thrift Stores' Gulf Coast locations. Smiley subsequently approached the company and helped bring about one of the first municipal partnerships of its kind in northern Mississippi.

Mayor Lynn Spruill said sending department heads to professional training is exactly how such results are meant to be achieved, and what truly deserves credit is the response of residents—their enthusiasm turned a good idea into a measurable environmental improvement. America's Thrift Stores also said Starkville became one of its most successful municipal partners in a very short time. Across its operations covering five states, the organization diverts approximately 65 million to 75 million pounds of reusable items from landfills each year.

This partnership requires no municipal funding: America's Thrift Stores provides and maintains the collection containers, conducts regular pickups, and issues monthly reports documenting the amount of material diverted from the local landfill. The donation bins are located at the Think Green Recycling Center (506 Dr. Douglas L. Conner Drive), placed alongside cardboard and aluminum can recycling bins, and are open to residents daily.

The city encourages residents to donate used clothing, shoes, books, and household goods in good condition. For health and safety reasons, mattresses, large appliances, hazardous materials, construction waste, computers, and broken or contaminated items are not accepted.

For the used clothing trade industry, the value of this case lies in this: the municipal recycling end is becoming a new entry point for secondhand clothing supply. If the model—no city funding required, with the company handling operations and pickup—can be replicated and scaled, it could not only bring more local collection volume to the sorting and resale segment, but also potentially change the flow structure of used clothing—from landfills to reuse channels.

Source: Starkville emerges as Mississippi leader in textile recycling initiative · Originally published 2026-09-12