Help Cut Clothing Waste: Don't Throw Away Worn or Damaged Clothing

At Trash for Peace, we are always learning about new and exciting ways to fight waste, and we'd like to share some of these tips and ideas. This week we're going to address clothing waste. People often ask what they're supposed to do with old clothes, especially worn, torn, or damaged items. The answer is you shouldn't throw them away! But we'll get to that in a minute. Here's why keeping old clothing out of landfills is so important:

Approximately 14.3 million tons of textile waste were generated in 2012, according to the EPA. Some of those old clothes and shoes—an estimated 14.4 percent—were recovered for reuse or recycling, but many ended up being incinerated or sent to landfills.

            The amount of clothing waste generated in the United States is likely related to consumer habits. The average American buys nearly 70 clothing items per year, while 50 years ago that number was only 25. Not only do we buy more clothes now, we purchase them for less money. Fast fashion, which is clothing made and sold cheaply that encourages buying more rather than reusing, is leading to an ever-increasing amount of textile waste.

Photo: Flickr/Trash to Treasure

           The average person can take concrete actions to help change this trend, though. Buying higher quality clothing that will last longer is a great step. Buying second-hand items also reduces waste. Then when it’s time to get new clothes, donating those items to charitable organizations ensures more clothing will be kept out of landfills. Most charitable organizations sell these donations in local stores or send the materials for reprocessing, and some garments enter international textile markets. So what should you do with old, damaged clothing? You should donate it, too. Most organizations like Goodwill accept clothing in any condition, and if your old jeans or T-Shirts aren't reusable, they'll get recycled.