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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?

#21

Post by zerocrates »

superchroma wrote: post #4
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?

In my country, those boxes go to discount stores operated by these charities which really aren't that cheap. A lot gets discarded, I've heard, because it's not presentable for purchasing. It's a bit sad, hopefully yours are better.

The article here describes Goodwill's operation in the US, where better-quality items are sold in the stores, lesser at outlet, and eventually things are bundled up and sold in bulk, as scraps, and for other uses like that. The idea is to just maximize the monetary value of the donations and then turn around and spend that money on their actual charitable mission. It removes some of the "romance" of donating items, but as long as you support the mission, I struggle to say it's the wrong move.

Of course there are negative effects as well, like the eventual dumping of items on poor countries and the effects on domestic markets for clothing in those places... but at the scale the West buys and discards clothes, there's really no perfect answers.

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

#22

Post by trgn »

> 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 to dispose them.

This happens all the time. Looking for a solution to a problem, when the problem shouldn't really even arise in the first place.

It's a great slogan, `reduce, reuse, recycle`, but we tend to forget the first two are the most important ones.

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

#23

Post by thesuitonym »

Overtonwindow wrote: post #10

A Lot of clothing donation bins are for profit companies that sell the clothing for furniture stuffing. Check out “Clothing Poverty” about the horrible problem the clothing donation industry has been. https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/clothing-poverty-the-hidden-wo... Also great episode of Tiny Spark on clothing donation waste. https://nonprofitquarterly.org/clothing-poverty-andrew-brook...

I wouldn't be upset about my clothes becoming furniture stuffing, I usually wear my clothes until they're not really presentable anyway. I usually cut them up as rags, but I don't go through rags that often, so I inevitably end up throwing clothes away. Had I know that I can give them to a company that will recycle them, I'd definitely prefer that.

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

#24

Post by rglover »

A bit of a tangent, but...

I'm actually quite excited by the implications of the changing economic outlook for the world. Companies are finally catching up with the reality that infinite growth and unending production are not sustainable business models (and a great way to kill your brand via diminishing returns). We might actually get to see a return to quality thinking (in the Juran/Deming sense) where things are actually made to last, not just be discarded and replaced with something new every X days/months/years.

Imagine a world/environment where people weren't hopped up on perpetual growth, could actually focus and iterate on an idea for a long(er) time, and a chart going sideways for a quarter or two wasn't coupled with an ulcer. Not only would living conditions improve for a lot of people, quality of life would skyrocket (both material and psychological/emotional).

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

#25

Post by Scoundreller »

I never really understand these articles and many of their points.

The claim gets made that exporting the clothes to developing nations is bad, but it’s usually products made for developing nations that can be low quality from the factory gate.

Claims are often made that 2nd hand clothing disrupts a local clothing industry, but in reality, it’s going to be difficult to compete with global manufacturing. Clothing isn’t a strategic industry imo.

And cotton is a plant product, nothing wrong with burning or composting it.

Clothing probably ranks as one of the most re-used consumer “products”, both by the initial buyer and subsequent buyers.

A real issue is crude oil based fabrics and blends and their recyclability and/or emissions when incinerated.

For me, old stuff becomes rags, which I’d otherwise have to buy “new”.

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

#27

Post by pwinnski »

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…

100% agree on reducing!

Still, are you suggesting that clothes should be kept forever?

Because whether you're talking about someone who discards entire wardrobes at the end of every season, or someone who rotates the same very-few items until they no longer fit, at some point people still need to do something with old clothes.

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

#28

Post by ezfe »

pwinnski wrote: post #27
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…

100% agree on reducing! Still, are you suggesting that clothes should be kept forever? Because whether you're talking about someone who discards entire wardrobes at the end of every season, or someone who rotates the same very-few items until they no longer fit, at some point people still need to do something with old clothes.

Yeah, and if you're disposing of few clothes, then throwing them away isn't unreasonable.

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

#29

Post by Scoundreller »

thesuitonym wrote: post #23
Overtonwindow wrote: post #10

A Lot of clothing donation bins are for profit companies that sell the clothing for furniture stuffing. Check out “Clothing Poverty” about the horrible problem the clothing donation industry has been. https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/clothing-poverty-the-hidden-wo... Also great episode of Tiny Spark on clothing donation waste. https://nonprofitquarterly.org/clothing-poverty-andrew-brook...

I wouldn't be upset about my clothes becoming furniture stuffing, I usually wear my clothes until they're not really presentable anyway. I usually cut them up as rags, but I don't go through rags that often, so I inevitably end up throwing clothes away. Had I know that I can give them to a company that will recycle them, I'd definitely prefer that.

If it’s presentably presented (ie: a nice stack of mostly squares without buttons/zippers), I’d think any random car/bike/moto mechanic shop would gladly take them off your hands.

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

#30

Post by notacoward »

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?

OP addresses this. Very little of what goes into those boxes gets sold as-is. Some more gets sold as rags, chopped up for insulation and pillows etc. Most ends up in landfills. The boxes are convenient, but don't really solve the waste problem. They just change who profits from the very small residual value in old clothes, and often not for the better. You're better off selling the very few best pieces (e.g. still-fashionable dress clothes in near mint condition) locally and donating the proceeds to a real charity. The rest will go in the trash anyway so might as well skip the middleman and put it there yourself.
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