Pearland residents will have another chance to be environmentally friendly when the nonprofit Keep Pearland Beautiful rolls out a curbside recycling program in March.

All residents with existing municipal recycling service will have access to a curbside textile recycling program through third-party contractor Simple Recycling, who was awarded a contract with Keep Pearland Beautiful in February. Simple Recycling is expected to begin its Pearland operations March 27.

“Our mission is to empower Pearland citizens to take responsibility of their environment,” said Andrew Miller, executive director at Keep Pearland Beautiful. “We just want to make it easy for the residents who don’t already [donate] to just put it out curbside.”

The nonprofit contracted with Simple Recycling in an effort to further divert trash from the landfill.

Residents will receive two orange 19-gallon plastic bags to place clothes and other goods into as well as a brochure about the curbside recycling program a week before the program debuts.

“We make it as easy to recycle this material as it would be to throw it in a trash [can] because all you’re doing is throw[ing] it in a simple recycling bag,” said Sonny Wilkins, the vice president of municipal relations for Simple Recycling.

On recycling day, which may differ by residential subdivision, residents can place their bags of clothes and small home goods to be recycled near the curb—not on top of the existing green bins since another contractor handles municipal recycling.

Simple Recycling will pick up clothes in any condition, regardless of how tattered or old they may be.

The curbside textile recycling program is at no cost to taxpayers, according to Keep Pearland Beautiful and Simple Recycling.

“We don’t charge the residents; we don’t charge the municipality. It’s a 100 percent free program. We are compensating [Keep Pearland Beautiful] for the material that would normally be thrown away. It really is a win-win for everyone,” Wilkins said.

Simple Recycling sells the clothing and other goods it picks up to its Houston thrift store partner Value Village. Clothes and other items that are not selected for resale will then go to international exporters, who will sift through the remaining goods that can be sold overseas. The final tier is raw textile recyclers who break down clothes for their fabrics. Any remaining items would be sent to a landfill.

Simple Recycling contracts for curbside textile recycling in about 50 cities and municipalities across the country, including about a dozen in Texas. The company is active in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Austin and several Greater Houston area locations, including Sugar Land, Texas City and Meadows Place.

Although Simple Recycling handles small items, the bulk of its recycling operations focuses on textiles.

About 8 percent of all landfill waste­—about 21 billion pounds—generated in the U.S. was textiles, according to a November 2016 report from the Environmental Protection Agency.