You might want to think again before giving your used clothes to charity after reading this.
Our generation has been a generation of fast fashion wherein almost every year, we purchase an average of 70 clothes.
Some garments naturally become worn so we’ll want to get rid of them, some throw it to the trash and some decide to give it to charity for a good cause and save our landfill with such materials.
But wait, have you ever wondered what happens after you give away your used clothing to the charity?
Council for Textile Recycling (CTR) confirms that less than 20% of clothes are sold in-store and almost 80% are sold to recycling services and 5% are going to waste.
Figures from 2014 found that Americans donated about 4.7 billion pounds worth of clothing to charity every year — 5% of that is still a huge 235 million pounds. And given that the world is far more eco-conscious than it was back then, it’s fair to assume that number is probably significantly higher now.
Watch this video: Youtube/ CBC News
So instead of throwing or giving away to charity, you can actually make use of your old clothing like personally redesigning it and posting it for sale or simply, re-using them.
ByWaters explained, “As the recycling process typically requires energy, it’s better to send your items to be reused where possible […] It also limits the need for raw materials and reduces how much waste enters landfill — which decreases greenhouse gas emissions.”
The number of clothes we buy annually is massive and it can be trimmed down if we are only giving more care to give longer life to our garments.
What are you thoughts about this?
Read more of this original piece here: scallywagandvagabond
Sources: scallywagandvagabond, ByWaters
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