No, it’s not a diet plan.  It’s GrowNYC’s Million Pound Challenge.

Grow NYC is recycling unwanted clothes at local green markets in an effort to keep one million pounds of textiles out of landfills.

So if you’ve got unwanted clothing, paired shoes, linens, hats, scarves or belts, drop them off at one of these green markets:

• 97th Street
• Fort Greene
• Grand Army Plaza
• Inwood
• Jackson Heights
• McCarren Park
• Thompkins Square
• Union Square

Materials will then be sorted into different grades (i.e., usable/non-usable, cotton scrap, cotton blend scrap & synthetics). They’ll be sold for reuse as clothing or linens or to recycling markets that turn materials into wiping rags, fiber for car seats & insulation.

All this recycling & reusing will account for a saving of 1,000,000 pounds of discarded waste by December 31, 2010.

And since the average New Yorker tosses 46 pounds of clothing & textiles in the trash every year (accounting for 6% of our entire residential waste stream or about 193,000 tons of material), stepping up to the Million Pound Challenge will really help make a difference.

Thanks to Grow NYC for making green easy!