Where Do Your Clothes End Up?
Did you know that individually we throw out roughly 70 pounds of textiles per year? I’m talking about garbage, as in straight to the landfill! That’s roughly 21 BILLION pounds per year in the U.S. alone according to Council for textile recycling.
In celebration of Earth Day this week I just wanted to remind/inform everyone about recycling our clothing. I have always brought my clothes to consignment stores hoping to make a little extra cash to go towards new items, but as most of us who consign know, consignment stores can be picky and rarely does the entire batch make the cut. When that happens I drop my clothes off at the thrift shop, but do you ever wonder what happens after that? According to Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles (SMART), charity sells 10-20% of donated items at storefront locations; so where do the clothes go that absolutely can’t go out for resale? What happens when the thrift shop is full and they need to purge their racks, do they throw pieces away, ship them overseas to countries that have shortages or are items donated to another organization?
It’s different with every thrift shop, consignment shop, clothing drive box, etc. That’s why it is important to do your research! After exhausting my efforts at consignment shops I usually donate my goods to good will or to another local organization that then donates “left-overs” to second party recyclers.
This is how it works:
Materials are often separated into three different grades: Usable clothing (donated to other organizations,) wiping cloth grades (turned into cleaning cloths,) and fiber conversion grades (fibers are recycled into possible home insulation, carpet padding.) Check out the image above as a reference.
Most employees of thrift companies will know where items end up that are not sold on the floor, so make the simple step of calling before dropping off your clothes. For those of you who are EXTREMELY busy and just can’t make it to the thrift shop check out your local pick up; most major cities offer free pick-up of unwanted textiles! So save your trash bags for actual trash leep your closets out of landfills!
References:
SMART: Donate, Recycle, Don't Throw Away - Recycle Clothing, Shoes, & More. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://www.smartasn.org/
Council for Textile Recycling. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://www.weardonaterecycle.org/
