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This week I've really cleaned out closets and drawers of clothing. Didn't realize how many old, out of date, worn, holey some of them were....the ones with holes etc. I just tossed but that leaves a lot of clothing to donate.
I read once that too many clothes end up at Goodwill, Salvation Army etc. and that they sometimes sell them in bulk to other countries to make into other products.
This week I've really cleaned out closets and drawers of clothing. Didn't realize how many old, out of date, worn, holey some of them were....the ones with holes etc. I just tossed but that leaves a lot of clothing to donate.
I read once that too many clothes end up at Goodwill, Salvation Army etc. and that they sometimes sell them in bulk to other countries to make into other products.
Anyone else heard that?
Yes. I've seen stores in Latin America called "American Clothing" or something similar, full of what looks exactly like used Goodwill fare.
I work at a non-profit thrift store. We receive far more clothes than we could ever sell, which enables us to be a bit fussy about what hits the racks. Nothing stained, torn, worn, or dated gets hung, and the same goes for shoes and handbags. We fill a tractor trailer every ten days or so with the discards, and sell it by the pound to a textile recycler.
We depend on donations, but sorting through the mountains of bags and boxes requires a lot of volunteer labor. It can be discouraging to see how many people use donation centers as dumps.
I donate to goodwill and anything holey or really stained so you can see goes in the trash . I never donate underwear (I knew someone who did ) . now my mother when we would grow out of something she would take the buttons off and use what fabric she could to repurpose those used clothes into maybe a patchwork quilt or maybe curtain for a bedroom or a patchwork table cloth. My grand was like that too .
I work at a non-profit thrift store. We receive far more clothes than we could ever sell, which enables us to be a bit fussy about what hits the racks. Nothing stained, torn, worn, or dated gets hung, and the same goes for shoes and handbags. We fill a tractor trailer every ten days or so with the discards, and sell it by the pound to a textile recycler.
We depend on donations, but sorting through the mountains of bags and boxes requires a lot of volunteer labor. It can be discouraging to see how many people use donation centers as dumps.
Good work,
I don't give anything soiled, holes, one shoe missing etc. We should all make sure it's wearable before donating. Thanks for the job you do, and the info.
<snip>We fill a tractor trailer every ten days or so with the discards, and sell it by the pound to a textile recycler.
We depend on donations, but sorting through the mountains of bags and boxes requires a lot of volunteer labor. It can be discouraging to see how many people use donation centers as dumps.
A friend worked for a nonprofit and the items "donated" frequently looked as if the donors had emptied out Mom's or Dad's place after they died and just brought everything to them in a truck- used underwear, half-empty bottles of perfume and makeup, dust-collecting knicknacks... at the time they had a policy that they never turned anything down but it soon became overwhelming.
I throw out very few clothes (with the exception of DH's after he died); I've stayed the same size for years and buy classic styles so if I don't wear something anymore it's because it's stained, worn through or has rips that can't be repaired. (I own a sewing machine and sewing kits and know how to use them.) I re-use what I can as cleaning rags.
One note on things being resold in Africa: some people studying how best to help the poor in developing countries have noted that donated clothing disrupts local businesses; it's cheaper to buy second-hand goods from the US rather than goods made by the locals. FWIW.
I donate only clothes in good usable condition--no stains, rips, mismatched socks or holey underwear. In my area, all of those worn-out cloth items can be put in a plastic bag, tied shut, and placed in the recycling bin, so that's what I do with them.
I've read that the clothes put in those bins you see in parking lots by various organizations just get shredded and recycled and used for fill in other products.
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