Many of the clothes we donate to charity end up dumped in landfill • Hacker News Board

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

#151

Post by abstractbarista » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 5:54 PM UTC

SeasonalEnnui wrote: post #136

After wearing my t-shirts to the point of being thread-bare or irrevocably stained (3-10 years), they become excellent lint-free rags for the electronics workbench & garage/workshop. The front and back panels of the t-shirt can be easily segmented into the desired size of rag (credit card sized for electronics, hand sized for the garage).

They are also perfect for gun cleaning! Cut small squares for cleaning barrels, and keep bigger pieces for wiping down parts. I do this with my old nasty shirts.

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

#152

Post by kube-system » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 5:56 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #148

rhino369 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recycling education is awful in America. I made it about 33 years without hearing that take out containers, etc. can’t be recycled.

It also recently came out that much of the recyclable recycling was and/or is not being recycled anyway, so I doubt any education would have made a difference. I assume all the recycling efforts are simply for political purposes at this point.

It recently got coverage in popular media -- but those familiar with sanitation operations and secondhand materials markets know that recycling has been subject to market demands for those materials for its entire existence. Recycling has never operated outside of the realm of economics.

The reasons changes to recycling programs are slow are:

1. People don't pay attention anyway

2. If the price of plastics go way up 5 years from now, you'll never retrain people to recycle again

3. Recycled metals are still valuable

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

#153

Post by JamesSwift » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 6:04 PM UTC

qqqwerty wrote: post #149

JamesSwift wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For myself, I tend to be in the "let the professionals decide what to scrap" camp. If the alternative is that I throw it in the garbage, what is the net loss by letting the workers who do this all day long decide what should be thrown in the garbage? As the OP says, they have various uses for items, so it makes sense to let them handle the sorting through of junk to decide what is ultimately landfill material. Sure,…

You are making it harder for recycling to be profitable/worthwhile. Sorting the material and disposing the trash is one of the biggest costs associated with recycling. If the inputs to the processes get too saturated with waste, the recycling process stops being a net positive to society. As an example posted elsewhere in this thread, a soiled food container is not only non-recyclable, it will contaminate the other m…

I should note that I'm only addressing donating items to e.g. Goodwill.

I am more careful with recycling, but only because I have slightly more knowledge about what to recycle since there is a somewhat helpful graphic on our city's recycling bin.

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

#154

Post by giantrobot » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 6:08 PM UTC

mumblemumble wrote: post #142

giantrobot wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Her bias is, she wants to hold on to even the slightest glimmer of hope that someone might find a use for an item. I have this same problem. It's actually taken me a lot of effort over the years to get away from this mindset. Not that I try to be wasteful, it's more of just forcing myself to be realistic about the likelihood of me being able to repurpose a thing. Sure a thing might be useful to someone but unless I…

I'm finding that I get a lot more utility out of framing it thus: the trash isn't created when I put it in the bin, the trash is created when I buy it in the first place. Once that happens, it's going to get pitched. Could be today, could be in 30 years, but someday it will happen. Where that pays extra dividends is in limiting the accumulation of clutter. I used to buy electronic gizmos I didn't, strictly speaking,…

That's a good way to frame things which is something I now do a better job with. My clutter problems were/are mostly from old me not thinking in that way.

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

#155

Post by JamesSwift » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 6:08 PM UTC

tablespoon wrote: post #141

JamesSwift wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For myself, I tend to be in the "let the professionals decide what to scrap" camp. If the alternative is that I throw it in the garbage, what is the net loss by letting the workers who do this all day long decide what should be thrown in the garbage? As the OP says, they have various uses for items, so it makes sense to let them handle the sorting through of junk to decide what is ultimately landfill material. Sure,…

> If the alternative is that I throw it in the garbage, what is the net loss by letting the workers who do this all day long decide what should be thrown in the garbage? Because a lot of the organizations that take donated items are charities, and disposing of your garbage costs them money that they then cannot use to do good. https://www.npr.org/2021/05/06/993821945/goodwill-doesnt-wan... It's the same thing with re…

The increased cost aspect is interesting, and is something I've recently learned about. Fortunately our local goodwill is very active in pre-screening items when you drop off so I don't feel a huge need to get into the weeds with it.

For recycling, it sounds more and more like our current systems just aren't well designed. If there is so much incidental complexity downstream that can actually ruin the recycleability of other items, we as consumers should aggressively under-recycle. But then that makes recycling that much less impactful as well. I don't know what the right answer is here other than we need to improve the sorting/processing to avoid consumers needing to understand the intricacies.

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

#156

Post by the_gipsy » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 6:11 PM UTC

syshum wrote: post #108

erfgh wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean that if people there only had access to more expensive clothing they would be better off?

Give a man a fish you feed him for a day, Teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime... What is more humane. Having them depend on the charity and free goods of others, or building their economy to be self sustaining

Why should they do meaningless work?

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

#157

Post by tablespoon » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 6:13 PM UTC

JamesSwift wrote: post #155

tablespoon wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the alternative is that I throw it in the garbage, what is the net loss by letting the workers who do this all day long decide what should be thrown in the garbage? Because a lot of the organizations that take donated items are charities, and disposing of your garbage costs them money that they then cannot use to do good. https://www.npr.org/2021/05/06/993821945/goodwill-doesnt-wan... It's the same thing with re…

The increased cost aspect is interesting, and is something I've recently learned about. Fortunately our local goodwill is very active in pre-screening items when you drop off so I don't feel a huge need to get into the weeds with it. For recycling, it sounds more and more like our current systems just aren't well designed. If there is so much incidental complexity downstream that can actually ruin the recycleability…

> The increased cost aspect is interesting, and is something I've recently learned about. Fortunately our local goodwill is very active in pre-screening items when you drop off so I don't feel a huge need to get into the weeds with it.

So they're paying some dude to pre-screen instead of paying a larger trash bill. It's still a cost to them. If people were a little more conscientious, those costs could be eliminated.

> But then that makes recycling that much less impactful as well. I don't know what the right answer is here other than we need to improve the sorting/processing to avoid consumers needing to understand the intricacies.

Those intricacies are not hard to learn, and the improvements you seek are probably a lot harder than you or I realize.

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

#158

Post by throw_m239339 » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 6:20 PM UTC

yardie wrote: post #30

throw_m239339 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all western countries define their societies along racial lines. It's mainly US society who engages in that behavior.

> Not all western countries define their societies along racial Yes, those other western countries are 90-99% white so whiteness is overtly implied since any other race is an anomaly. You probably haven't been asked the notorious 6-worded question, "but where are you really from?" that seems to only happen to people of color in western European countries. > mainly US society who engages in that behavior. Yes, racism…

> Yes, those other western countries are 90-99% white so whiteness

I've only heard that word "whiteness" in the mouth of 2 kind of people, neonazis and their racist counter part on the left.

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

#159

Post by mulmen » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 6:20 PM UTC

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…

> WTF are people thinking?

I can understand people just dumping everything in the bin because sorting it properly is an overwhelming task.

I recently signed up for Ridwell [1] and pay them to properly dispose of (sort and redistribute) all kinds of waste I could get rid of for “free”. The problem is figuring out where to take everything and then actually getting there in my car. As far as I can tell there isn’t one single drop off point in my area for plastic film, food containers, clothing, electronics, and styrofoam. At some point just putting everything in a bin for $10.00/mo makes a lot more sense.

Muddy boots are an extreme but I have things like ripped shirts that might be repairable or useful as rags or some thing I just can’t think of.

[1]: https://www.ridwell.com/

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

#160

Post by toast0 » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 6:21 PM UTC

thaumasiotes wrote: post #39

wirthjason wrote: post #28

Interesting article. On discussing buying clothes sight unseen the article mentioned: It’s only once a bale has been opened that the quality of the clothing is discovered. If it’s in good condition, profits can tally quickly to as much as $14,000. But if the clothes are torn or stained, or long out of fashion, their importer may as well have put a torch to their money. I find it interesting that the clothes they want…

I find the general concept of a business model where you buy unknown items and hope they end up covering your costs pretty interesting. I think jade works in a very similar way - the mine produces boulders of unknown quality, and middlemen buy them on the theory that there's probably good jade in some of them.

It's delegation or specialization, more or less.

The people in the mine don't have time or space or desire to process the boulders, but they can source them. Etc.

Vertical integration would increase the amount of total margin accruing to any one business, but at the cost of turning a focused business into a sprawling one, and increasing the time and risk between aquiring the materials and selling them.