Recycling rags has its good points

"One or two decades ago you could give used clothes to a nanny or relatives in rural areas and they would welcome these things, but now people are getting wealthier and more picky about styles so they usually reject offers of used clothes," Yang said.

She said she used to get stressed deciding what to do with her old clothes, but with the introduction of a used clothes recycling program in her community in mid-December, Yang can now give the clothes she no longer wants to designated collectors and earn green points. These can then be redeemed for daily necessities such as toothpaste and shampoo.

The program is part of the Greener Action Greener Shanghai project, which encourages residents to recycle and reduce waste.

Residents can also donate used milk cartons, tins, bottles, light bulbs, batteries and electronic appliances to designated collectors which will earn them green points that can also be used to redeem admission tickets to parks.

More than 39,400 green point accounts have been activated since its debut in March 2009, according to Tryun.com.cn, the official website of the project.

On average, Shanghai residents throw away more than 1.3 billion kilograms of used clothes every year, which can be recycled to make raw textiles of nearly the same weight, according to the Shanghai municipal office of waste management.

Professional clothes collectors from a recycling management company explained how Yang's used clothes will be categorized and used. A pair of trousers, which she rarely wore, are labeled as re-usable and will go to humanitarian aid projects. Several pairs of socks, jeans and a piece of wore-off T-shirt will be disinfected, sorted and fiberized and then made into raw materials for garments, carpets, slippers and shopping bags.

"The program will encourage residents to recycle used clothes because they see that their clothes are going to the right places," said Zhang Shiyou, the spokesman for the Linfen Road community office.

The program is on trial in 18 neighborhood communities in the Linfen Road community and hopefully will be popularized throughout Shanghai, Zhang said.