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What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

theatlantic.com

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Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#41

Post by stormbrew »

CPLX wrote: post #34
trgn wrote: post #22

> There is simply no easy, universal guidance for the most Earth-friendly or hassle-free or socially good way for you to dispose of your old clothes But there is. In fact, the answer is right in the setup of the article. > For much of American history [...] most of the population considered the endless accumulation of material goods unseemly, Basically, don't buy so many clothes to begin with. And then you don't have…

This may come as a shock as I admit the extent of it surprised me as well, but the speed with which children change size soundly outstrips the lifetime of the average piece of clothing. And I’ve heard rumors that adults change size quite a bit as well. Sometimes they move from one place to another too.

I think this is a thing where "how did people used to dispose of clothes" is one of many tips of a much bigger "the rise of the atomic family reduced our interconnectedness and our ability to share resources" iceberg.

People talk about using hand-me-downs but it's become a lot less common to have enough people in your life to get or give things to, outside more formal channels like thrift stores that will only accept certain kinds and qualities of goods (for good reasons).

If I had a kid right now I wouldn't really have anyone in my life who could give me outgrown clothes, nor would I have anyone to give them to. My life just isn't built that way and I don't think that's uncommon.

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#43

Post by kibwen »

racl101 wrote: post #16

As a guy who has always worn hand-me-downs in child hood and teenage years I wear my clothes out until they are no longer wearable. So I just convert them into rags or toss them in the trash once they have too many tears.

Same here. Nice clothes get worn until they get visibly tattered or stained, then they become pajamas or clothes for doing dirty work, then finally they turn into rags.

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#44

Post by psidebot »

CPLX wrote: post #34
trgn wrote: post #22

> There is simply no easy, universal guidance for the most Earth-friendly or hassle-free or socially good way for you to dispose of your old clothes But there is. In fact, the answer is right in the setup of the article. > For much of American history [...] most of the population considered the endless accumulation of material goods unseemly, Basically, don't buy so many clothes to begin with. And then you don't have…

This may come as a shock as I admit the extent of it surprised me as well, but the speed with which children change size soundly outstrips the lifetime of the average piece of clothing. And I’ve heard rumors that adults change size quite a bit as well. Sometimes they move from one place to another too.

Children's clothing can get worn pretty hard too. Our stuff is definitely not in donation suitable condition by the time it's too small, although I suppose it might be different if we bought more or more expensive items.

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#45

Post by serf »

CPLX wrote: post #34
trgn wrote: post #22

> There is simply no easy, universal guidance for the most Earth-friendly or hassle-free or socially good way for you to dispose of your old clothes But there is. In fact, the answer is right in the setup of the article. > For much of American history [...] most of the population considered the endless accumulation of material goods unseemly, Basically, don't buy so many clothes to begin with. And then you don't have…

This may come as a shock as I admit the extent of it surprised me as well, but the speed with which children change size soundly outstrips the lifetime of the average piece of clothing. And I’ve heard rumors that adults change size quite a bit as well. Sometimes they move from one place to another too.

children also wear out clothing quicker than adults in my experience, this balances that transition from size to size a bit -- but are you proposing that one throws out their wardrobe when they change locations?

That seems incredibly wasteful to me, especially since clothing doesn't really take much packing room unless your wardrobe is huge or fragile -- and if you have a huge & fragile wardrobe then we get back down to the idea that one should live a bit more sparingly to reduce the need for recycling in the first place.

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#46

Post by trgn »

ziddoap wrote: post #39
trgn wrote: post #22

> There is simply no easy, universal guidance for the most Earth-friendly or hassle-free or socially good way for you to dispose of your old clothes But there is. In fact, the answer is right in the setup of the article. > For much of American history [...] most of the population considered the endless accumulation of material goods unseemly, Basically, don't buy so many clothes to begin with. And then you don't have…

Unfortunately I'm not allowed to walk around naked, so I am forced to purchase clothes at some point. And at some later point, I have to dispose of them. Your comment doesn't seem to address that, and it's pretty fundamental to the question, I think.

> And at some later point, I have to dispose of them.

I somewhat disagree. You do have to get your clothes, but what is about the disposing of perfectly fine clothes that's necessary? It's only because we have too many of them. Wear the clothes until they're worn. Use the rags.

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#47

Post by Syonyk »

CPLX wrote: post #34
trgn wrote: post #22

> There is simply no easy, universal guidance for the most Earth-friendly or hassle-free or socially good way for you to dispose of your old clothes But there is. In fact, the answer is right in the setup of the article. > For much of American history [...] most of the population considered the endless accumulation of material goods unseemly, Basically, don't buy so many clothes to begin with. And then you don't have…

This may come as a shock as I admit the extent of it surprised me as well, but the speed with which children change size soundly outstrips the lifetime of the average piece of clothing. And I’ve heard rumors that adults change size quite a bit as well. Sometimes they move from one place to another too.

> ...but the speed with which children change size soundly outstrips the lifetime of the average piece of clothing.

So you swap clothing around to other parents who have younger kids, in exchange from clothing from people with older kids?

There's a very solid ecosystem of clothing/shoes/etc moving around our church, and it's quite common to see someone wearing clothes that our kids used to wear, or seeing our kids wearing that was passed down from someone else.

There are certain ages/genders that you find a bit of a gap in (a typical 4 year old boy will destroy their pants before outgrowing them), but... stuff goes around in regular loops. "Kitchen trash bags of good condition clothing" regularly go between cars on Sunday morning or at other gatherings.

I'm sure there are some people who buy new clothing for their kids at ever size and then discard it when it's worn out, but that's just pissing huge amounts of money down the drain for no benefit in the slightest.

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#48

Post by sct202 »

pessimizer wrote: post #18
capableweb wrote: post #2

All the countries I've lived in during my life (4) have had various types of "boxes" on the street where you can dump clothes, which subsequently gets donated to various organizations that handles giving clothes to people in need. Since I've found this in every country I've lived, I thought this was ubiquitous in the modern world. Am I maybe blinded by my experience here?

They don't want your old clothes, they want your semi-fresh ones.

If they're so old they've crossed the line to vintage, they are in demand again.

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#49

Post by mtlmtlmtlmtl »

logifail wrote: post #12
capableweb wrote: post #2

All the countries I've lived in during my life (4) have had various types of "boxes" on the street where you can dump clothes, which subsequently gets donated to various organizations that handles giving clothes to people in need. Since I've found this in every country I've lived, I thought this was ubiquitous in the modern world. Am I maybe blinded by my experience here?

> All the countries I've lived in during my life (4) have had various types of "boxes" on the street where you can dump clothes, which subsequently gets donated to various organizations that handles giving clothes to people in need [..] Q1: To which people? Q2: As a 'donor', how is one supposed to be able to determine what actually happens after your throw your clothes in the box?

It's not a literal black box. It has information on it, maybe a website, where you can go research what happens in great detail. Including what clothes are accepted, what the minimum conditions must be, whether they are sold in thrift stores or donated, and to who, etc.

Re: What are you supposed to do with old clothes?

#50

Post by xsmasher »

capableweb wrote: post #2

All the countries I've lived in during my life (4) have had various types of "boxes" on the street where you can dump clothes, which subsequently gets donated to various organizations that handles giving clothes to people in need. Since I've found this in every country I've lived, I thought this was ubiquitous in the modern world. Am I maybe blinded by my experience here?

There are many clothing drop-boxes near me (SF bay area). They make claims to charity; they sell the clothing and give 10% of the proceeds to a charity. The other 90% goes to the company that owns the box.
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