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| Warehouse with bales of clothing Source: Google Images |
Many Americans often go for what is currently in fashion, and discard or donate what is no longer in fashion. I tend to not have this problem, since I have clothes that I wore as a teenager that I still wear. I may be out of style at times, but as readers know, I fancy myself on being ahead of the trends. For example, take distressed jeans that has yet to "go out of style" for many persons. My jeans get distressed from wear. The last thing I want is to buy a pair of distressed jeans--brand new. My wear is most common the knees. I have jeans that my spouse has repaired three or more times--sometimes in the same spot. At some point they become no longer worthy to wear, and are discarded. You know we live in a land of too much money when people buy purposely ripped and torn jeans from a major retailer. I mean, how much wear can they get with holes in the knees or the thighs?
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| Distressed Jeans sold at Retailer I would be happy to sell my used jeans distressed by actual wear to someone I did not know my worn jeans would be so cool. |
The thing is clothing wears out, and as I have come to observe, even at some point it is no longer worth repairing. Some old clothing we use for rags. My wife re-purposes t-shirts for people by making t-shirt quilts, or for making bears. She also uses scraps of material to make quilts. She evens the pieces, sews the together, and makes a quilt that she donates to varied places--from Hospice to children respite centers. At some point clothes need to get thrown out, due to wear. What would be nice if someone could come up with a way to use worn clothing, so it does not have to go into a landfill. Some places the clothing is used, but it is not like we can put worn clothing in our recycling container. I recall Tri-North Builders office building in Fitchburg used insulation made of old blue jeans. What a good measure to re-purpose used clothes.
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| Bears made by my wife for a person using old T-Shirts Author photo |
As you Marie Kondo your clothes it may be wise to keep this blog post in mind. According to greenamerica.org, the United States generates 16 million tons of textile waste a year, or about 6% of overall municipal waste (by comparison, plastics disposed of in landfills make up about 13%). Of this amount about 2.5 million tons gets recycled, three million tons are incinerated, and 10 million get sent to landfills. A smaller amount, about 700,000 tons, they say, is sent overseas. On trips to Mexico, Africa and the Mid-East I saw plenty of persons dressed in what was probably discarded US clothes. That earlier mentioned website notes that for Goodwill stores, clothing remains in the store for about four weeks before being moved to outlets which sell clothes for 99 cents per pound. Some are sent to recycling centers. However, a Nov 25, 2021 article in the National Catholic Reporter noted that about 20% of the clothing at second-hand stores is actually sold at a secondhand store. Quoting from a Fashionista site, from 2014, this article notes that 11%, or about 22 million pounds of clothing donated to Goodwill was not fit for sale, and were discarded in landfills. This is old data (being from 2014), but calls into question where the non-usable clothes actually go.
Over the past 12 years, I have been in Jaurez, Mexico, the Mid-East, and Africa. At each location I visited at least one market. I saw retailers selling used American clothing alongside locally made clothing. The value of American clothes sent overseas is said to over $720 million annually. Here we think we are doing well donating clothes, but so many end up overseas, and we often think of that as a good thing. Yet, the founder of the OR foundation, as reported by NCR, cites one market in Ghana and the challenges used clothing pose. At the Kantamanto Market in Ghana, this market, like others in the developing world, the clothing retailers will take out loans, often at 35% interest to buy bales of clothing for them to sell. It is further noted that only about 20% of these retailers make any profit, meaning 80% have taken on a risk that produces no positive return. The NCR article refers to this as "unjust risk." Elizabeth Ricketts of the OR Foundation notes that these donated clothes which often travel halfway across the world, has a large environmental cost, as 40% of the clothing sold at the market (about 40 million items of clothing are sold at Kantamanto every quarter) is burned, ends up in the gutter, or more likely dumped in in informal settlements where vulnerable people live. It poses a deep dilemma. Ricketts also notes that such cheap clothing causes issues with local persons who make and sell clothing as they cannot compete with the prices for used verse new clothing. Hence, they have no way to develop local textile manufacturers. Many developing countries still depend on individual producers and merchants.
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| One of many quilts my wife makes with pieces of left over fabric Donates to varied Charities Author photo |
Given the amount of clothes discarded to landfills in the US, it is certainly better to donate, but if a large percent of donated clothing is discarded anyway on the receiving end, what has been accomplished? Less space in a US landfill, but an environmental cost somewhere else.
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| Third World Market with clothing bales Source: Google images |
Then there are the big online retailers. This figure is staggering: over 30% of online purchases are returned to the place from which it was purchased, think Amazon. Of clothing purchased on line, about half, that is 50%, is returned. If you think the current supply chain is a problem, there is a bigger problem with returns, as little exists in the backward supply chain. Clothes are often simply discarded since there is little value in the item making its way back through the system. Part of Amazon returns are sold to secondary e-commerce sites, like liquidation.com. Yet, Business Insider reports that studies have shown they destroy millions of items a year. I don't think Jeff Bezos cares much about this issue, as he sits on his exorbitantly sized yacht in the ocean. I recall ordering a book to give as a gift, and we returned the book three times, because each of the books had thick black magic marker line along the side. Even though the calls to Amazon made it clear we did not want a book with such a mark to give as a gift, they kept sending a different book with the same issue (the marks were all in different places so I knew it was not the same book being recycled back to us).
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| US Textile Waste Source; greenamerica.org |
So, what to do? First, I think the best thing is to not buy clothing online, unless you know it will fit and be what you want. Second, per the NCR article, choose items that will last, and consume less. Consuming less means we do not have as much to donate, particularly when the item does not spark joy. As for me, perhaps it means, I should have those jeans repaired a fifth time. If someone wants some distressed jeans they can come to my house, and buy a pair--at a reasonable price. We live in a society which produces too much and allows us to spend too much, when we need to be more conservation minded. Being conservation minded, or perhaps frugal, is good all the way around. Next time you look to buy clothes, think of the after life of the clothes once they no longer meet the Marie Kondo test. In a sense when we purchase we should think of the 3 R's: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The after life clothes is to important to not think about what is purchased.
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