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

#221

Post by weq » Wed, Aug 18, 2021, 12:43 PM UTC

handrous wrote: post #186

legerdemain wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glass is mostly "recycled" by crushing, mostly to reduce the hazard of broken glass littering the street. In many states, buying a drink in a glass container carries a nominal extra fee to cover the "recycling." No one actually wants to buy your used glass containers for their own sake.

As recently as the early 90s there were still grocery stores that'd take back glass soda bottles to refill them, but the only places I know that still do anything like that are some fancy dairies (via the grocery stores that distribute their product).

In many countries still do this, especially with things like milk and beer bottles.

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

#222

Post by mikem170 » Wed, Aug 18, 2021, 2:43 PM UTC

Scoundreller wrote: post #214

mikem170 wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea is that "Made in Africa" clothes costs less locally in Africa than clothes made in Asia and shipped to Africa. Giving out free clothes in Africa puts "Made in Africa" out of that business. What costs less for you in America may not be the same as what costs less in Africa, because of transport costs.

What's the transport cost on a t-shirt in a container? 7 cents? My guess is that these countries have protectionist duties, which just makes goods more expensive for locals. Textiles aren't a very strategic industry. (Yes, everyone needs them, but it's not hard to find a selling country).

There could be protectionist duties. These are sometimes justified due to the cost of loosing jobs. A trade-off.

I'm just not sure of relevance of the cost of asian versus african shirts in the U.S. It's not just shipping containers, but the rest of the transport network, how many trucks are available, the retail networks, and the middle-men to facilitate the trade, the different labor and cost of living, currency exchange rates, regulatory stability, etc.

Seems like there are a lot of confounding variables and it would be difficult to draw on what t-shirts currently cost in the U.S.

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

#223

Post by elric » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 10:30 AM UTC

mulmen wrote: post #200

elric wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is highly location-dependent, but in some areas, charities will come to collect used items (say a big bag of clothes) free of charge, whereas throwing that same bag out in the trash is costly. So sneaking in a couple of shitty items basically saves money. Trash collection is -- no pun intended -- a mess.

With all the different types of plastic and how easy it apparently is to contaminate a batch I feel like sorting has to basically be perfect at the collection facility. At that point can't we just put everything in the trash and assume it will be sorted? Expecting individuals to do this perfectly across the entire population seems like it would never work. Separating donate from trash clearly makes sense. And maybe c…

I wonder about the exact same things.

Adding to that, is a matter of cost. Lawmakers apparently place very little value on my time. Sorting trash costs time. Taking it to a recycling center costs time (and requires transportation, which I don't have). Disposing of paper/cardboard means I have to walk ~500 meters to a special rubbish bin with an opening the size of a letter box. Which means I have to spend time ripping up cardboard boxes. It's ridiculous and I feel like it's a giant waste of my time.

I can buy crap online for cheap, with free shipping, without ever leaving the house. But disposing of the packaging is a hassle. Trash collection seems stuck in the middle ages, but with more rules which seem pretty pointless.