Try this on for size.

Those old and torn skinny jeans in your closet – the ones you swear you’ll wear again – weigh in at about .455kg.

Knowing that bit of textile trivia might help put some weight behind what GO customers have recently pulled from closets and cupboards.

For more than a month, commuters have been able to drop off used clothing at donation bins recently installed at four Markham GO stations – and the initial results of their efforts are piling up.

The pilot project, previously featured on Metrolinx News (scroll down for that link), has already diverted more than 2,500kg of clothing and textiles that would have otherwise been destined for landfill.

How much is that? Remember that single pair of jeans? All combined, the loads of donated cloth weighs as  much as a full grown hippopotamus. And it’s getting bigger.

The new textile recycling bins are the result of a partnership between Metrolinx, Diabetes Canada and the City of Markham.  The bins have been installed at the four GO Stations in Markham (Mount Joy, Unionville, Centennial, and Markham) to help give back and reduce our environmental footprint.

The donations support those living with diabetes and are part of a broader strategy to reduce the amount of fabric and other clothing materials that end up in rapidly overflowing landfills across the province.

If the program continues to increase in popularity, the plan is to roll it out to GO stations across the region.

For the full list of accepted items, click here.

You may just want to reconsider leaving those aged and torn skinny jeans in the closet, and instead see how they fit on the hippo already growing bigger for a good cause.