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Loading...Recycle Your Clothes And More
- Judi Gerber
- August 27, 2012
- 11:05 am
- 71 comments
If you are like me, the amount of waste you put in your trash has decreased significantly over the past decade. This is due to a number of factors, including the recycling bin that I fill up every week and that has increased in size in the city I live in.
And, of course, it is also due to the number of yearly trips I make to donate my old clothing, shoes, linens, etc. to a local charity like the Salvation Army, Goodwill, and the local women’s shelter.
However, there’s still one area that I struggle with: what to do with old clothes, socks, shoes, sheets, etc. that I just don’t think are nice enough to donate to other people. I know that if I put them in the trash, they will remain in a landfill for hundreds of years. So I often use old t-shirts, dishtowels, socks, and even underwear as rags. But you can only have so many rags, and eventually even they need to be disposed of.
That’s why I started to explore options for these items and was pleasantly surprised to learn that there are businesses, organizations and local governmental agencies that will take these items and reuse or repurpose them.
For example, the City of Santa Monica holds regular “textile collection” events to collect old materials. Not only do they collect old rags, towels, bedding, and unusable clothing, but they also have a reuse workshop showing people how to sew bags made out of t-shirts to use for shopping at the local farmers’ market.
In New York City, GrowNYC offers clothing & textile recycling collection at 19 Greenmarkets throughout the city. They indicate that they have collected over 1.5 million pounds since 2007.
And some clothing companies actually take back their old products from consumers for reusing. Patagonia, with their “Common Threads Garment Recycling Program,” is one company that does this.
If you can’t find a place to donate to or recycle your stuff, you might want to check out S.M.A.R.T. (Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles) Association. This non-profit trade association has over 200 member businesses that take your used clothing, as well as clothing and other textiles from commercial businesses like laundries and hotels and excess donations from charitable organizations. The group’s motto is “donate, recycle, don’t throw away,” and they certainly live up to it.
About 45% of the clothing collected goes to other countries that want secondhand clothes, 30% of the textiles become wiping and polishing cloths used in businesses, and 20% becomes fibers used in things such as insulation, soundproofing, and furniture stuffing.
They offer tips on recycling your textiles, and you can even search for a recycling center near you.
Read more: Do Good, Green, Make a Difference, Reduce, Recycle & Reuse, clothing, donating, recycling, reusing, Textiles
Judi Gerber
Judi Gerber is a University of California Master Gardener with a certificate in Horticultural Therapy. She writes about sustainable farming, local foods, and organic gardening for multiple magazines. Her book Farming in Torrance and the South Bay was released in September 2008.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
people are talking
Whoever wrote that sure talks a lot but says little
good ideas.
Thx for the info. It's really sad though and I hope they don't go extinct. :(
We need to care for animals and their habitats.
I like this concept.
71 comments
+ add your ownthanks.
You will probably have to copy and paste to your browser but it shows you how to pack and ready your donations to Indian Reservations that need everything you can send. Please think of Native Americans when you donate good clothing, shoes, blankets and especially clothes for children. Donate your books and text books too. These people live way below poverty and many have no way off the reservation. Take a look at this e-how site please and get your friends together to help with donations. Thank you for this opportunity to help someone in need.
http://www.ehow.com/how_8196756_donate-clothes-native-american-reservations.html
i think if you can reuse things, then you should. and if you can't find a use for them, i'm sure there are many people out there who can! one man's rags is another man's riches as the saying goes. but in today's society, i think it comes down to if someone can be bothered to or not
if you are crafty make those things useful in that way! we make a lot of things "rags" but you can also use these types of things as stuffing, sewing material, or t shirt yarn!
Yes--this should go without saying! Thank you!
Something that should be done normally, without thinking about it...
I am a quilter - anything that's no longer suitable to wear or display around my home goes into my 'repurpose' bag and, when there's a natural disaster (eg: the Black Saturday bush fires and Queensland's severe flooding of a few years ago) I use the best parts of these textiles to create functional quilts and pillows to donate to those who have lost everything. Several of my friends now also donate theirs to me for the same purpose.
I was disappointed that I couldn't find a place near me to donate old clothes that cannot be worn. I will have to keep checking periodically and maybe something will pop up.
Thanks.
thank you!
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