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Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

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Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#111

Post by themaninthedark »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #95
jnwatson wrote: post #48

It is articles like this that remind me that we so desperately need a carbon tax. Making a t-shirt in China, shipping to the US, wearing it for a few times, and then shipping it to Africa should not be economically viable.

Or you know, just don't make it in the first place. If all low quality fast fashion were $20 instead of $7 across the board people would still gorge themselves on it. They're not buying stuff for the need to have clothes, they're buying things for the experiences of buying it and the novelty of something new.

And who is going to police this? All the trinkets and gadgets that we produce all fall in the same category.

>Nest, Echo, Homepod...

Just get up and turn off the damn lights yourself.

>Drones

How many people bought one or two, flew it around for a while and crashed it. Very few are making videos or doing something interesting with them.

>Starbucks

Do we really need separate stores, trucks shipping product all over for someone to have the convenience of a cup of coffee?

>TV/Netflix

If we want to talk about the utility of something, this one is amazing. How much money, time and energy has been spent so that someone can watch a 30 minute show on demand. And we have to keep spending money and energy because the novelty of the old stuff has worn off.

Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#112

Post by UnFleshedOne »

sumtechguy wrote: post #77
NikolaNovak wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How quickly do they seem to wear down? I'm wearing a 15yo t-shirt as I speak and it's in great shape. I have several in closet that are 20yo. I don't take any particular care other than always washing on cold and using low temperature drier. My polo shirts depending on material do seem to wear down, on the collar in particular. They seem to be from different material than most t shirts.

That could be a bit of survivorship bias too. I too have cloths that are 20+ years old. But other stuff from the same era is long gone too. For me it is one of two things the stitching just comes undone and ends up tearing the fabric. Or the fabric is just threadbare. I do have to agree though with the quality. It has really dipped in the past 10 or so years I would say. Especially in things I used to consider durabl…

Kids these days are buying jeans with holes in them already. They don't even have a decency to get them worn down personally...

Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#113

Post by lazerpants »

retSava wrote: post #50
francisofascii wrote: post #33

Any tips on extending the life of our clothes? I love new t-shirts, but they seem to wear down quickly. Maybe there is a way to wash them and get the sweat smell out without wearing down the shirt. I always use cold water, and only wash/dry when necessary. I heard washer agitation is a problem.

Washing clothes do wear them a lot, so if you can avoid washing clothes too often that'll help. Socks, undergarments, and (most often) t-shirts I don't do this with, but everything else like shirts or pants, do hang them nicely across the back of a chair so that they can air properly. Avoid wrinkles when hanging them. I'm about to buy new bed sheets etc, and the advice I've read is as follows: * satin is nice and sof…

Look for Oeko-Tex certifications too. My wife is in textiles and is impressed with their processes. A lot of "organic" sheets are not carefully sourced and are not actually organic.

Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#114

Post by clomond »

tcfunk wrote: post #57

I'd be curious to know if it is helpful or hurtful for me (as someone who can afford to buy "new" cloths) to shop at secondhand clothing stores. Am I preventing clothes from getting shipped out to Africa, or preventing someone of less means from finding something to wear? Or a bit of both?

Yes there is a waste prevention piece, but the key thing on a personal level is preventing the purchase of the new item of clothing for some purpose that you were looking for.

The moment the money exchanges hands for the new product, that is additonal commerce which functionally “locks in” the emissions and the associated incentive structure. It’s less about buying used, as it is about reducing the buying of new.

Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#115

Post by 5e92cb50239222b »

mschuster91 wrote: post #100
dylan604 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Local pollutions just don't stay local. They eventually become part of the entire global climate. Global climate is the sum of all of the local climates. There's no walls protecting CityA from CityB's pollution. Look at the effect of wild fires on parts of the globe without fires. This is just a sad way to look at things. Changes have to start somewhere. They can start small, and then grow larger. People like you say…

edit to add: particulate emissions (diesel soot, tire and brake wear) stay local and don't ever become global. The focus on "individual action" is a talking point that BP invented in the 70s (see https://mashable.com/feature/carbon-footprint-pr-campaign-sh... ). I won't stop anyone from reducing their footprint, but we have tried this shit for decades now and it clearly hasn't worked a single bit. We need to hold the…

Particulate emissions from large fires very much do. I live approximately 2500 kilometers from the forest fires in Russia, and air pollution in the last two or three weeks has been intense.

Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#116

Post by vidarh »

ghaff wrote: post #64
vidarh wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In high school at one point when discussing the amount of agricultural space goes to cotton, the teacher asked how many pairs of trousers we each had. I had two. I hated going shopping, and two was enough for me to wear one pair while the others were in the wash. A bit on the low end, maybe. I have a few more now, but still mostly cycle 2-3. Several of my class mates claimed to have 40+. I couldn't even imagine that.…

If you count all the specialized trousers (a lot of which aren't cotton) for various types of activities, the number in my house definitely gets up there even if I discount things like sweatpants and old trousers I use as work pants. Most of my unnecessary bulk though is logoware from tradeshows and the like which I don't go out of my way to accumulate but still adds up over time as I (normally) do a lot of that type…

Specialized clothes if you engage in activities that'd benefit from it, I can understand. But for most in my class these were all jeans, only differentiated in appearance, if that.

Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#117

Post by kaybe »

topkai22 wrote: post #81
dylan604 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>why would anyone "donate" these is a different matter This is a very big question though. WTF are people thinking? There's a difference between no longer wearing something because it no longer fits but is otherwise in good condition to not being used because it's completely ruined. What mental block exists in the original owner from just throwing away the ruined items vs just holding onto them to donate so someone e…

I’m sure I’m guilty of doing this, but it’s mostly mental laziness. When I’m sorting stuff for donation I’m mostly thinking “keep” versus “donate.” The third category of “throw away” is there and their is a pile, but it’s not one of the two defaults, so unless I notice the article is quite bad I don’t toss it there. This has also meant I’ve kept clothes that really should have been tossed as well…

It's also 'this is broken and should go to cloth recycling, but I do not have access to any cloth recycling facility, whereas the donation centers do'.

Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#118

Post by pfranz »

dylan604 wrote: post #71
gambiting wrote: post #53

We run a processing company for second hand clothing in Poland(as well as our own shops), and while I can't comment on exports to Africa or elsewhere, that's definitely not the case for us. Primarly because we try to make use of absolutely everything we import, but also because few years back certain legislations were introduced that basically prevent companies like ours from producing large amounts of waste, with dr…

>why would anyone "donate" these is a different matter This is a very big question though. WTF are people thinking? There's a difference between no longer wearing something because it no longer fits but is otherwise in good condition to not being used because it's completely ruined. What mental block exists in the original owner from just throwing away the ruined items vs just holding onto them to donate so someone e…

I've seen videos about recycling where they call it "wishcycling" and point to things like lamps and umbrellas tossed in their city's curbside recycling bin. I think the wish is that someone will find a use for it and it will avoid a landfill. In actuality, it can be a waste of someone else's time and money.

Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#119

Post by vidarh »

II2II wrote: post #32
vidarh wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In high school at one point when discussing the amount of agricultural space goes to cotton, the teacher asked how many pairs of trousers we each had. I had two. I hated going shopping, and two was enough for me to wear one pair while the others were in the wash. A bit on the low end, maybe. I have a few more now, but still mostly cycle 2-3. Several of my class mates claimed to have 40+. I couldn't even imagine that.…

This is true of young children as well. They will notice if someone (another child or adult) cycles through a small set of clothes and comment on it, which can easily be construed as peer pressure.

With young kids though, a lot of the time it's down to the parents. I know most of my son's clothes are a result of his mum wanting to buy him things. Only a tiny proportion are things he wanted.

Re: Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill

#120

Post by [deleted] »

mumblemumble wrote: post #91
dylan604 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>why would anyone "donate" these is a different matter This is a very big question though. WTF are people thinking? There's a difference between no longer wearing something because it no longer fits but is otherwise in good condition to not being used because it's completely ruined. What mental block exists in the original owner from just throwing away the ruined items vs just holding onto them to donate so someone e…

To add to what others have said, I think that a lot of people have this idea that "trash = bad" so deeply internalized that they're heavily biased toward only putting things in the bin when there can be no doubt whatsoever that it is garbage. You also see this when people put greasy paper take-out food containers in the recycling. No, it's not recyclable, and worse, it might further contaminate other things and rende…

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